‘I withdrew £138k from my pension in a pre-Budget panic – now my provider won’t let me put it back’
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/pensions/private-pensions/i-raided-my-pension-in-a-panic-now-the-regulator-wont-help/
Posted by savvy_shoppers
‘I withdrew £138k from my pension in a pre-Budget panic – now my provider won’t let me put it back’
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/pensions/private-pensions/i-raided-my-pension-in-a-panic-now-the-regulator-wont-help/
Posted by savvy_shoppers
49 Comments
Maybe she shouldn’t have put so much faith in right wing rags that spent the month before the budget going unchecked and making up countless stories about things that never came to fruition. Completely her own fault for falling for it.
Paper that was scaremongering about the budget complains that scaremongering made somebody do something.
> The 56-year-old had read that Labour was considering cutting the tax-free lump sum
> …
> It is a decision she has come to regret
This is horrifyingly brazen from the Telegraph. They say that “she had read” this content which misled her and they link to their own content. They’re lying to their readers and then laughing at them for being lied to.
“We published a load of scaremongering nonsense. Look at this stupid fucking idiot who believed what she read in our newspaper. It ruined her life. But look on the bright side, now we can milk her for even more content. I wonder if we can get a quote from her blaming Labour or immigrants, that would be even better!”
This is stupid.
She took money out and didn’t consult her pension providers beforehand if she could choose to put it back. She just thought she could because a website said so.
She also only wants to put the money back because she thought the new government would make tax changes that they turned out to have not done. She took a gamble and lost.
On the other hand, a lot of people crystallised gains just before the budget at the lower rate and they seem quite smart now. My intuition says that, on balance, it’s foolish to make rash, speculative decisions about finances, even if it does occasionally pay off.
Just when she’d finished off the last of the loo rolls she bought in lockdown.
She’ll have to invest it. 20k in an ISA this year and every subsequent year after paying CGT.
Not all that bad if she does this.
I work in finance and it was always extremely obvious that they were never going to just remove tax free cash on day of budget. Overlooking the laws that’d need changing, the backlash and the unfairness it would create for people who’ve planned on basis of getting it, providers would struggle to act immediately.
Never ever make financial decisions based on conjecture! Especially if it’s come from express or telegraph! You’d think the generation who told us not to believe everything you read on internet, would know better
Why should people take responsibility for their actions? They just do their actions. It’s not like they spend hours and hours thinking about them.
In the words of a Sergeant Major, “Oh dear, how sad, never mind.”
Omg. Some people would love to have £100k in their personal pension for retirement. They had over 500k saved and now 25% is in a bank account. Boo hoo. Bigger problems than that in the world.
I fail to see the point of this, she made an enormous financial decision based on nothing other than a headline and then thought that somehow she’d be able to reverse it? That’s her own stupid fault, never mind the fact that she’s now appearing in the very paper that scared her with the BS in the first place.
Wait, did this person take that sum of money just because she read a scaremongering headline?
No financial advice? Didn’t even read one of the many info sheets the pension provider would have supplied her with when she requested her tax free cash, which amongst other things would have said this is not reversible and you should seek financial advice before proceeding?
And now she’s crying to the newspaper because the pension company is not breaking regulation and letting her reverse the transaction?
fuckin hell i wish i had 138k somewhere that i could withdraw it
“i made a stupid decision and i can’t undo it now” compoface
138k could easily be stuck into some US funds and generate alot more. Even with some taxes to pay.
Hopefully someone just informs her of a few things to spread risk and tbh she’d earn way more than her pension pot would ever do.
Perhaps she’ll learn to be more careful with what she reads and believes?
She looks as though she can afford it anyway. lolz
What has changed? She got the money tax free, has totally messed up her future pension contributions, ?
Why didn’t she consult a financial planner? Think she can only contribute 6k? now she has accessed her pension.
I would be suprised if her pension company wouldn’t have warned her.
All on her!
She took a calculated risk, but just took the wrong option. Oh well, it happens. Not sure why she thought she would have an automatic “undo” though.
Over £500k in her pension pot and she is still complaining.
Anyone who makes significant, life-changing decisions based on what they read in newspapers deserves everything they get. Independent financial advisors exist for a reason. Common sense exists for a reason. If you’re not going to use either then you shouldn’t be fucking with things you don’t understand.
Only way to improve this story is if she is being interviewed on Rip Off Britain because she’s been scammed out of it. Moron.
I wish I had £138K to take out of my pension. Stupid is as Stupid does.
I know a few folks who did this through family and friends. They never stopped to think, the budget changes don’t become law the second reeves leaves parliament or reads them out. Still gotta be debated and approved then passed through lords and stuff. Whole rigmarole to it and that’s if it’s an easy change. Scrapping the tax free would likely incur resistance so there was zero need for people to rush and remove all their money the day before the budget. Serves them right as people say for getting worked up by papers looking to sell a story and instal fear
1. She used to work in the city. She should have known better.
2. What was she going to do with the £138,000 anyway? She can still do that.
3. Her pension was worth over half a million. That’s more than probably 95% of the population have.
Put it somewhere else then, buy a flat and rent it or something.
You have to be genuinely quite thick to read The Telegraph for any significant amount of time. The quality of reporting in it is some of the worst going in terms of basic understanding of the world, fact-checking, and in terms of willingness to outright fib to try and score political points. I would honestly place money that the Daily Mail is a better source of news these days. In the last year, The Telegraph has:
Claimed a primary school was “marked down by Ofsted for being ‘too white,’” when the real issue was limited cultural development opportunities for students [https://www.reuters.com/fact-check/british-school-marked-down-over-cultural-development-not-ethnic-make-up-2024-09-02](https://www.reuters.com/fact-check/british-school-marked-down-over-cultural-development-not-ethnic-make-up-2024-09-02)
Claimed disabled drivers were receiving £40k cars for free, misrepresenting a legitimate subsidized leasing program [https://www.ipso.co.uk/rulings/19985-23](https://www.ipso.co.uk/rulings/19985-23)
Falsely accused a Scout leader of ties to extremism, leading to an apology and a payout for defamation [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Daily_Telegraph#Controversies](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Daily_Telegraph#Controversies)
Misled on climate change by claiming rail delays were decreasing due to fewer weather-related disruptions, which was completely wrong and ruled misleading by IPSO [https://bylinetimes.com/2024/10/21/telegraph-misled-readers-on-climate-change-impact-rules-press-watchdog-in-rare-slap-down](https://bylinetimes.com/2024/10/21/telegraph-misled-readers-on-climate-change-impact-rules-press-watchdog-in-rare-slap-down)
And because we should never forget it, The Telegraph published a supplement called “China Watch” produced by Chinese state-run media, **pushing paid propaganda disguised as journalism** until a few years ago [https://www.niemanlab.org/reading/the-daily-telegraph-has-stopped-publishing-a-chinese-paid-propaganda-section/C](https://www.niemanlab.org/reading/the-daily-telegraph-has-stopped-publishing-a-chinese-paid-propaganda-section/C)
How, how in the name of fuck does this article have this at the bottom of it while reporting on a panic that the newspaper itself created:
***Labour and your retirement***
*Millions of retirees are at the sharp end of Rachel Reeves’s maiden Budget, including their pensions being hit with an inheritance tax penalty. Read Telegraph Money’s advice on how to dodge the Chancellor’s raid on your wealth.*
*Meanwhile, as winter sets in, millions of pensioners face the harsh reality of Labour’s decision to limit entitlement to the winter fuel allowance. Telegraph Money explains who can still get the help. Find out if you are eligible for pension credit and how to claim it to boost your standard of living in retirement.*
*Unlocking access to this new pension could help solve Britain’s retirement crisis, or forget pension schemes altogether and save this way instead.*
That’s what you get for always believing the scaremongering lies of right-wing newspapers, silly bint.
Of course she can’t put it back. What nonsense. She’ll just have to find somewhere else to invest it. If that was her tax free cash, then she’s still got 3x that amount in the pension. Why, exactly, should we care?
‘You had 138K to withdraw? You were lucky, we used to get by on used chip shop wrappers…’
The irony of the Telegraph reporting on someone doing something dumb based off their own reporting.
They can basically make their own articles now based on their gullible readership.
Why even waste your precious retirement time going to the news with this
Great work from the telegraph. Helping the government raise a bit more capital gains tax from the wealthy.
If u got that much money I don’t think u can moan about much 👍
Just put it into the S&P it’ll probably do better I guess.
When you go to release your pension it isn’t a simple ‘here’s the cash’ – there’s a redemption pack, then you choose and option, with what you can and can’t do listed in there.
It’s made very plain that with certain drawdowns you either can’t put it back in or still only buy back a certain portion, and you are recommended to get pension advice from an external source if you don’t understand.
Then when you decide your options you have it digitally or physically sign a document which again reminds you what you can and can’t do.
Sadly this lady obviously followed the telegraph instructions to withdraw money from nasty leftist pension schemes and then moans to the only place that will listen to her – which would happen to be the same bloody place who got her into trouble in the first place.
Self awareness isn’t something that happens with telegraph readers!
I’m pretty sure that when taking it out she will have been asked multiple times if she had spoken with a financial adviser. Pension companies get very twitchy about customers taking out big lump sums for bad reasons, you kinda have to be stubborn to push through all that twitchyness
So she made a mistake and was stubborn about it. The rules are the rules, any adviser could have told her that. The pension company probably told her that but I was not on the call so I can’t be 100% sure.
Sympathy levels hovering around zero right now.
Here’s how to show them: take *all* the money out and invest it in an index fund.
Person who works in the City and should really know better makes bad decision that bites them in the arse. And the icing on the cake is because she is now in drawdown she can only contribute £3600 a year from now on so depending on what her employers contribution was she may have just given herself a big pay cut too.
If labor didn’t faff around for so long to publish the budget, increasing uncertainty for businesses and the general public and stopped using the time to float various rumours to test public opinion through the media then this sort of thing would be a lot less prevalent. Just saying.
Then put it somewhere else. Non existent problem solved.
There are rules about how much you can pay into a pension each year. You need to speak to an independent financial advisor. Maybe you should have spoken to one before you grabbed the cash
This is good news. I’d far rather be in control of my investments than my pension fund. Offset the tax gain with a wise investment and you’re good.
Stick it in a stocks isa for the s&p 50p on trading 212. Next best bet.
Leopards ate my face.
Honestly Telegraph, that’s kinda on you.
We know pension advisers were *ahem* busy in the run up to the budget, the tonality in reporting was one of outrage and fear *to generate clicks so you can make more money*. So take a bow.
So put it in another pension.
It’s almost like this person doesn’t really know how money works.
Honestly not the worst, invest it and it’s all good
I don’t know how these things work… but can’t she just put it into a high interest bank account to invest it? Surely not all is lost, unless she spent it all already?