Details on how many people are accessing their pension and how much they’re drawing have been released by HMRC today (available here).
- 327,000 people made 778,000 withdrawals totalling £2.37 billion between July and September
- Average withdrawal per member continues to fall
- Regular withdrawals now the norm as the number of withdrawals per member hits a record high of 2.38 withdrawals per member for the quarter
Nathan Long, senior analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown
‘People are drawing less from their pensions and doing so more regularly, which gives yet more evidence that people are sensibly managing their money into retirement. New pensions rules came along in a hurry, but they are bedding down and for the most part working well. With the beginning of tax year pension drain accounted for in the last quarter’s figures, we see withdrawals in line with the on-going trend for drawing out less. The real test of people’s behaviour is when the stock market suffers some turbulence, a crash could cause panic among retirees and a dash to encash their pension savings.’
Average withdrawals per member
We’ve been tracking the average payments per member over time. This is important as the number of withdrawals will continue to grow as people settle in to using their pensions for regular income withdrawals. The chart below shows these trends in average withdrawal per payment (blue) and average withdrawal per member (orange).
