Re: Pension Advice
I took my Rover group pension at 55. 25% tax free lump sum but taxed on my monthly payment.
Generally all pension payments (after the 25% TFC) are taxable so if you are still working you are likely to be above the PAYE minimum and will be taxed at your usual rate.
Also something to enquire about is the 'actuarial reduction'. This is the amount they reduce your pension by for taking it early. It varies between schemes and obviously depends on what the stated retirement age of the scheme is but a rule of thumb figure is that your pension will be reduced by 5% for each year you are retiring early. So if your scheme selected retirement age is 65 and you go at 55 then you might only receive somewhere in the region of 50% of the pension shown on your statements.
As other posters have said you need to get all the information you can and then take it to an advisor and discuss it with them. It's a 'once in a lifetime' decision and pensions/ annuities are so inflexible that once you've made your choices it's often impossible to reverse/ alter them.