Thousands of members 'trapped' by small pension pots

Jonathan Stapleton
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Thousands of scheme members with small personal pension pots are being "trapped" by poor annuity rates or lack of access to the market.

Barnett Waddingham consultant Malcolm McLean said people with pension pots under £5,000 were facing significant problems securing annuities as most insurance companies will not quote on pots below that level or offer extremely poor rates if they do. McLean said: "It is clearly quite wrong that someone who has saved money in a pension plan cannot at the end of the day benefit from that plan either by turning it into a pension or taking the money back in cash under the trivial pension rules. "But that is exactly what is happening when for example someone has a small personal pension on ...

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