Retirees feel regret after rushing to take out tax-free cash

Chancellor urged to provide earlier clarity ahead of 2026 budget

Isabel Baxter
clock • 3 min read

Three in five retirees (61%) who withdrew tax-free cash from their pension ahead of last year’s budget say they regret doing so, data from Quilter has revealed.

The wealth manager's a survey of 5,000 UK retirees found that 57% withdrew tax free cash ahead of the budget, and of those people, 41% did so in anticipation of possible rule changes. In the run up to last year's budget, it was widely speculated that the long standing 25% tax-free lump sum could be reduced or capped. This led to many people rushing to withdraw tax-free cash only to find that chancellor Rachel Reeves had decided to leave the lump sum limit untouched. Some of those individuals were still in work. This uncertainty was compounded by the wider fiscal backdrop, Quilte...

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