The amount of money withdrawn from pensions jumped by more than a third in 2024/25, with savers taking out £70.9bn compared to £52.2bn the previous year, according to the Financial Conduct Authority's (FCA) latest Retirement Income Market Data.
The regulator said nearly 1 million pension plans were accessed for the first time during the year – 961,575 in total, up 8.6% on 2023/24. Sales of drawdown policies recorded the largest rise, increasing 25.5% to 349,992 in 2024/25 from 278,977 in the prior year. Annuity sales were also higher, up 7.8% from 82,061 to 88,430. Meanwhile, the number of defined benefit (DB) to defined contribution (DC) transfers continued to decline, falling from 7,181 in 2023/24 to 6,418. The FCA data showed that 30.6% of pension plans accessed for the first time in 2024/25 were taken with regulated a...
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