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Cash Lump Sum request

This online form should be used if you'd like to take a cash lump sum from your Royal London pension plan. If you do, we’ll pay the first 25% of your cash lump sum to you tax-free and the remaining amount will be taxed as income. You should only use this form if you've discussed your options with Royal London recently.

Important information

It’s important that you understand all your retirement options including the tax implications. If you aren't sure if you can take a cash lump sum from your plan, you should speak to your financial adviser or contact our customer service team on 0345 602 1028 or PP.Claims@Royallondon.com.

You can only take a cash lump sum from your plan if you meet the following requirements:

If you’re only taking part of your savings 

The minimum amount you can ask to take is £1,000. The amount remaining in your plan must be no less than £2,500 (or £200 if you’re still making regular contributions to your plan).

Exit charges

If exit charges apply to your plan, the total amount that we’ll deduct from your plan will be higher than the amount you receive in order to cover these charges. Any exit charges will have been discussed previously and will be confirmed to you before you take any of your retirement savings.

Deducting tax from your payment

We’ll normally deduct income tax at the emergency rate from the taxable portion of your cash lump sum. As this may not take account of your personal circumstances, it may mean that we’ll deduct too much or too little tax from your lump sum payment. If this happens, you’ll need to reclaim or pay the difference directly to HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC).

The effect of this payment on future contributions

If you’re not already subject to the Money Purchase Annual Allowance (MPAA) you will trigger this by taking all or part of your retirement savings as a cash lump sum from your plan. If you trigger the MPAA, the total contributions you can make to all of your pension plans within any tax year, without being subject to a tax charge, will be limited to the MPAA.

Lump sum allowance

You can take the whole amount as a single lump sum. 25% of your pension pot can usually be taken tax-free, while the rest will be taxable. You'll need to plan how you'll provide an income for the rest of your retirement. You should also be aware that a large lump sum would likely be taxed at an emergency tax rate - though you may be able to claim some of this back through your local tax office.

Under pension rules there are limits on the amount of tax-free cash you can access from your pension plan. This is known as the lump sum allowance (LSA). The LSA is set at £268,275 and payments above this are subject to tax at your marginal rate of income tax. Understanding the LSA rules is important because if you provide incorrect or incomplete information you may become liable to additional tax charges. Before choosing your option it's important you check any previous LSA you may have used with Royal London or other pension providers. Find out more about pension allowances. 

If you change your mind

If you decide to cancel this application to take a cash lump sum from your Royal London plan within the cooling off period, you must immediately pay back to Royal London any cash lump sum you’ve received from your plan.

You won't be entitled to take all or part of your retirement savings as a lump sum cash payment if you are:

  • under age 55 (unless you are eligible for early retirement due to ill health);
  • entitled to either primary or enhanced protection and you had a right to a tax-free lump sum of greater than £375,000 on 5 April 2006;
  • entitled to a lifetime allowance enhancement factor and the available portion of your lump sum  allowance is less than 25% of the amount of the payment.

The terms of your plan are detailed within your plan booklet which you received when you set up your plan. If you need an additional copy of this you can request one at any time.

Find out more about the risks involved.

Completing this form

Please complete all the required information and click 'Submit' to complete your request.

We'll check the information you provide against our customer records to verify your identity and process your Cash Lump Sum request.

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Cash Lump Sum form

* Indicates a required field

1. Your details

Personal information collected on this form will be used to administer your request. To understand the detail of how we use your information you can read the privacy policy (opens in new window) or listen on 0800 085 8352.

Personal information
Title *
You will find this on your statement or policy documents
You will find this on your National Insurance card, benefit letter, payslip or P60
Please use the format DD/MM/YYYY
Email is the quickest and simplest way for us to communicate with you, it also helps us support the environment by reducing paper. We will use the email address you provide here to update our records and to send confirmation of the request.
Address

2. Cash lump sum

Please provide us with the details of how you'd like to take your retirement savings.

Would you like to receive: *

3. Payment details

Please fill in this section with your bank details. The account must be a UK current account in your name or jointly in your name.

Must be 6 digits long
Must be between 6 and 8 digits long

4. Verifying your identity

In order to satisfy the UK Money Laundering Regulations, we need to verify your identity before we can process your application.

We'll do this electronically, using your name, address and date of birth. We may run several electronic checks depending on the request, including checking your details against the electoral register and records held by fraud prevention parties. 

We may need to request additional information from you if we aren’t able to verify your identity this way.

Please confirm that you’re happy for us to carry out this check *

5. Declaration

I confirm that I wish to take all or part of my retirement savings as a cash lump sum from my plan as detailed above.

Royal London has not provided me with financial advice in respect of taking all or part of my retirement savings from my plan. If I need financial advice, I am aware that I should speak to my financial adviser;

I declare that the answers I’ve given are correct and complete to the best of my knowledge. If further tax becomes payable because the information I’ve provided above is proven to be incorrect then I understand that I’ll be wholly and personally liable for the tax charge due and any resultant penalty as may be imposed by HM Revenue & Customs.

* Indicates a required field

Pension savings risk warnings

Please read the information below carefully. You should only continue if you understand and accept the risks involved.

You should think carefully about taking money from your pension savings and the impact it will have on what you end up with.

The money you’ve saved over the course of your life will need to last for the whole of your retirement. Spending too much at the start could mean you or your dependants could run out of money.

You may notice that your shopping today costs a little more than it did a year ago – and probably a lot more that it did 10 years ago. This is down to inflation.

When prices go up, it can eat away the value of your retirement income – meaning your money won’t go as far tomorrow as it will today. This means you have a higher chance of running out of money, as you may need to take a higher income to cover the effects of inflation.

The government will let you earn a certain amount each year before you pay any tax. This is called your ‘personal allowance’.

Generally speaking, any income you take over and above your personal allowance will be taxed at your normal rate. However, if HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) don’t have the right tax code for you, you could pay more tax. You may be able to reclaim any emergency tax by visiting the HMRC website and completing the relevant online form.

You should also be aware that taking large amounts from your plan could push you into a higher income tax bracket. So you’d give more of your hard-earned savings to the taxman.

Tax rules depend on individual circumstances and may change.

If you’re planning to re-invest the money you take from your pension, you should be clear on whether you'll be charged for doing so. You should look at any charges closely and see how they compare with what you'd be paying to keep your money where it is.

It's also a good idea to weigh up the potential returns you could get on your new investment against the risks you'd need to take to achieve them.

Remember, the value of investments can fall as well as rise - meaning you could get back less than you started with.

When you take a cash lump sum, it’s likely you’ll trigger something called the Money Purchase Annual Allowance (MPAA). This is essentially a limit on how much you’re allowed to continue saving towards your retirement into a pension before a tax-charge applies.

To find out more about the MPAA and how it works, visit tax free allowances.

The amount of income you take from your savings could affect your entitlement to means-tested state benefits.

This means if your income or any money you have in the bank rises above a certain level, it could affect your eligibility to certain things like housing benefits and council tax reductions.

When you’re able to access your pension savings, there will be criminals who are eager to get their hands on your money.

So if you’re planning to take cash out of your pension to give to someone or to invest somewhere else, you need to tread carefully. You could lose everything if things turn out to be fraudulent.

If you’ve been advised on what to do with your pension savings, you should always check that person is registered with the Financial Conduct Authority.

You can do this by visiting register.fca.org.uk.

Most people who have lost their pension savings in a scam were first contacted by a cold call from a scammer. A cold call is when someone you have not previously agreed to accept calls from phones you to talk about transferring or taking your pension savings.

Unsolicited calls from people or companies promoting pension transfers or cashing in your plan are illegal. You could lose your pensions savings if you transfer or take your benefits after being contacted by these cold callers.

For more information on how to spot pension scams from cold callers, please visit the FCA's ScamSmart webpage.

If you’re in debt, either now or in the future, the individuals or companies you owe money to can make a claim for your pension savings when you take a payment.

While the money remains in the protective environment of your plan, it can’t be touched by anyone else.

Contact us

If you need help or have questions about your Cash Lump Sum request, please contact our customer service team on 0345 602 1028 or PP.Claims@Royallondon.com.

Pension Wise from MoneyHelper

Pension Wise from MoneyHelper is a free and impartial retirement planning service, introduced by the government to help you understand your options. Find out more at the Pension Wise website.