A website aimed at helping retirees who are considering their options post pensions freedoms, has been backed by a government pensions adviser.
Ros Altmann CBE, the UK government’s business champion for older workers, and an independent specialist on consumer finance, pensions and retirement, commended Skipton Building Society’s retiresavvy.co.uk website.
The site aims to become a community to encourage and empower people to take control of their own financial futures.
The site includes blogs, expert comment and online forums where readers can share their experiences of retirement including financial planning.
Skipton said that given April’s changes to the pension rules, people were facing more confusion and uncertainty than ever about what will become of their pensions and the options available to them once they retire.
Retiresavvy.co.uk is part of the 162-year old building society’s commitment to community and corporate responsibility.
David Cutter, chief executive of Skipton Building Society, said: “We are proud to add retiresavvy.co.uk to our range of tools that help people planning their retirements. We aim to help plug the huge gap in retirement information that exists in today’s society, despite the growing complexity and urgency of this issue.”
Adviser view:
Mark Soper, IFA and managing director of RetireEasy, said: “People do need to research their options. A telling survey was conducted recently by one of the UK’s major pension providers, Nest, which canvassed 2000 of its customers – an unusually high sample – about how they would take their pension benefits.
“While only 7 per cent stated that they would take the whole pension fund in cash a further 20 per cent planned to take the required level of income out of their pension fund (drawdown) rather than buy an annuity and 22 per cent were not sure what they wanted to do.”
