FCA stats reveal hike in people accessing pensions without advice

About 30% of savers took regulated advice before accessing their pot

Jenna Brown
clock • 2 min read

The number of people who withdrew money from their pension pot for the first time increased to 885,455 in 2023/24, latest statistics from the regulator reveal, however, there was a decline in the uptake of financial advice beforehand.

The Financial Conduct Authority's (FCA) retirement income data for 2023/24 reported an almost 20% increase in people accessing their pots for the first time. It said 885,455 people withdrew cash from their pensions compared to 739,652 in 2022/23. However, analysis from Quilter pointed out that the number of people seeking regulated advice before dipping into their pots "continued to decline". Head of retirement policy Jon Greer said that in 2023/24, just 30.9% of plan holders took advice, down from 32.9% in the previous year. "This ongoing drop suggests that more people are navigat...

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