Pension fund option on leaving service

cian59

Registered User
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2
Appreciate any advice you can offer us.

My wife has recently retired from a company due to ill health. She is currently 53 and possibly will not live to see the retirement age. The pension pot is very modest due to short tenure there. We have recently purchased a new house so would benefit from the cash short term while my pension would cover us in retirement. We have received a statement of pension benefits upon leaving with two options:
  • Pension of 1,314 Eur per annum payable from normal retirement date
  • Transfer of benefit immediately of 12,876 Eur
It seems as though if we want to take the transfer of benefit we need to set up a PRSA in my wife's name. What I am unsure on is whether we can access the cash from that account or if that's also locked up to normal retirement date?
 
In limited circumstances there may be option to get a refund of your employee (not employer) contributions, but usually if this was available, it would be included in the leaving service options statement. So it's unlikely to be relevant here.

How long was your wife's tenure with most recent employer?

Did she transfer any pension benefits from previous employer(s) into most recent employer?
 
She can take ill health early retirement and cash in her pension.

If the value of the pension won't buy an annuity of at least €330 per annum, she can take a trivial pension. She will receive a tax free lump sum as per the rules of the scheme (likely to be small if she hasn't been there for long). The remainder is taxed at 10%.

If the pension payable is over €330 per annum, she can take 25% as a tax free lump sum and the remainder as a once off payment taxed under PAYE.


Steven
www.bluewaterfp.ie
 
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