Consumer > Individuals > Income Release
Income Release
Giving you the freedom
to access your pension.
Income Release lets you decide when and how often you want to access the money you've saved and how much you'll need. And, what's more, you don't have to stop working to use it. As Income Release is fully integrated into the Pension Portfolio it allows you to access your pension directly without the need to transfer to a different plan.
How it works
To access your pension benefits you first need to select all or part of your Pension Portfolio for Income Release, as long as you have a minimum of £20,000 in your Core Investments. You may select any proportion of your plan depending on the benefits you wish to take. If you select less than one hundred per cent of your pension for Income Release, the plan will be made up of two separate accounts - the Income Release Account and the Savings Account.
- Income Release Account
This part of your plan pays out the pension benefits you need. - Savings Account
This is made up of the remaining funds within your plan and you can top this up with further payments at any time. You can't take benefits directly from this part of the plan, you have to move it into the Income Release Account first.
As the Income Release Account and Savings Account can include both Core Investments and Self Investments, your plan may consist of up to four parts:
- Income Release Account Core Investments
- Income Release Account Self Investments
- Savings Account Core Investments
- Savings Account Self Investments
If you take the maximum tax-free lump sum, your plan will have only an Income Release Account. It won't have a Savings Account unless you make additional payments to your plan.
It is normally sensible to keep as much as possible in the Savings Account because you can move it into the Income Release Account as you need it, however, you can't move it back again into the Savings Account.
Find out more
- Download our Income Release Customer Guide (PDF).

