You tell 'em Mags 
Hello Nice to chat to you.
I was 55 in June 2018, and took 25% of my pension pot from my employment (for the last 35 years) a nice sum that did and is still doing exactly what I wanted it to do, and also take a pension from it.
What I would say to you is ask for a statement from your pension provider most send one annually and would show you the breakdown.
If you plan to take it and want it as soon as you legally can, let them know a couple of months in advance especially if you are staying in employment as I did.
You simply fill in a form give them bank details and sit back and wait. I have to say I also re-joined my company pension scheme., and also have a small pension from previous employment which I will take at 60.
I loved it working 24 hours and had took a couple of steps backwards career wise so no stress. My mind was thinking often I could sort that but then my brain said “not your job anymore” I came in one day to find a sign on my work locker that said “what do you want to do? ask a boss who is in charge or Karen who knows”
Think my turning point was like you I worked nights for a good few years and we lost 4 people Simon 39 heart attack, Dave 59 heart attack, Liz 61 stroke and Mark last year 57 heart attack (also diabetic 1) nights is not lifestyle friendly. In my opinion.
Have fun.
Good to see you Kazz 
I would love to find a way to retire at 55. It’s just so boring looking into how the pension works. I know that I can draw at that age but I’ve not looked into the financials.
It’s really not difficult. Just email your pension provider and ask for an “illustration” for taking your pension at 55 both with a 25% lump sum and without a lump sum.
They will tell you exactly how much your pension is worth in total and what that means in terms of monthly payments.
Then you can make your decision.
They will likely send you a form to complete before they can do the illustration (think it was called an LDA form). It’s a simple form asking what other pensions you have and what their current value is etc.
Our Foxy was too, I believe.
Hi Kazz.
Reading your post there is easily the closest scenario to what I am experiencing. You took your pension at 55, worked nights and at 60 you are looking at taking another pension - as I will be from my RAF service. Like a mirror image in fact! 
I’ve been further looking at this now and it’s really going to prove very useful in clearing mine and my wife’s debts, her car paid off plus paying for mine and my wife’s funerals (in advance), a new bathroom and possibly a nice holiday too - all for a quarter of the pension (the tax free sum).
I will also be able to leave the night shift and beforehand I’ll be talking to my firm about a similar job on the day shift (though ideally I don’t want to work shifts at all anymore) Perhaps even re-training for a different role at the company.
It does make sense to stay with this company though as I’d lose all my holidays if I started again somewhere else - I’ll wait until I’m 60 to do that. We’ll see.
But as you say, we see so many people lose their health due to working nights. I’ve been on them over thirteen years now and I’m almost certain that my chest and coughing complaints are due to these unsociable hours. On my shift of 18 people most of them are or have been suffering illnesses, mostly diabetes-related, heart problems or bad backs and sciatica.
Time to get out then soon and I’m predicting at the most one more year and then it’s time to move on.
Nice post, Kazz. Thank you
Hi
Take it Floydy.
I did, it was either me or two of my employees to meet May’s cuts.
Younger, kids and a mortgage, so I took the bullet.
I took the maximum Tax Free, paid off the mortgage, downsized, gave the kids the money and so happy now.
Work the system, you can get a lower paid job, wack it into a Pension, get 20% tax relief on it, which is a huge amount, take the maximum lump sum and get another pay out tax free.
Annuities go up and down, cash in the bank is yours.
A reasonable plan Swims so long as one is able to survive on that lower paid job wage. Comes down to lifestyle choice and living within one’s means I guess.
My adage has, and will always be, make paying any debts off the first priority because debts accrue interest. Pay the debts off and you massively reduce the overall amount that you will have to pay. Same goes for a mortgage. Pay it off as soon as humanly possible as it can knock tens of thousands of pounds off the total repayable amount.
There’s an interesting debate to be had about whether it is better to sit with debts and pay into a pension, or whether it is better to temporarily stop paying into a pension and instead use the available money to pay off the debts.
In the first scenario, running with debts and/or mortgages, you are accruing lots of interest payments making the total repayable amount much higher than it otherwise would be. In the case of a mortgage the difference in interest paid and total repayment amount is staggering. Pay an extra £100 a month off your mortgage and you could save a stonking amount on the total loan and see the mortgage paid off years earlier.
In the second scenario, you put all available monies into paying off the debts and mortgage instead of paying into the pension pot. So your eventual pension amount is less than it otherwise would be but you’ve saved a collossal amount of money paying the debts/mortgage down.
You’re only getting 20% tax relief on the first £2,880 paid into your pension. The amounts you save by paying down more towards a mortgage is surely phenomenally better no?
Interested to hear yours and others thoughts on the debt vs pension equation.
Double check on your tax free entitlement, mine was 33% unknown to me.
I took mine out back in 2013,taking the 25% then reinvesting the rest into a private pot,that were the rules at the time.At the end of last year I received a letter from the then pension provider to get in contact,about being owed some money,which I duly did,it turns out they paid out the 25% which was a mistake after doing some calculations they then paid me another 8% tax free of the original fund,not even my financial advisor at the time knew of this.The 33% was set up by the pension provider.
Hi Caricature.
You are preumably talking about a private pension there. Every pension has its own rules terms and conditions of course.
One thing to note is that, at least here in the UK, if you take a tax free lump sum from your pension and then pump that same money into another pension to increase your overall tax benefits you can end up with huge tax charges.
It is known as “recycling”. Everything depends on how much cash is being used and what percentage that is of your “lifetime allowance”. I had to sign a declaration form when I started taking my pension stating if I was recycling or not.
Just reread the letter from my then workplace pension provider,
Quote:You are entitled to take a proportion of the pension in tax free cash, by transferring the pension to a new provider, tax free is limited to %25 of the pension. Under the ****** administered scheme the tax-free cash entitlement was more. Unquote.
It was a workplace pension under the money purchase scheme not a final salary one.
Hi
I beg to differ.
When I took redundancy, I could not go back to working for the Government as a direct employee for a year and a day without having my Pension reduced.
Time out, back again, part time, 29 and a half hours a week, fixed term contract and paid the lot into a Private Scheme, full tax relief and then took 25% of it, Tax Free, when I finished 3 years later.
If I had worked 30 hours a week, I would have been classed as full time and lost my original Pension.
The rules are complex, but workable.
Sounds similar to where I worked Swim, only for us the stay out period after taking voluntary redundancy was just 6 months. Quite a few people took the pay off and left and then came back as IT contractors 6 months later. They were absolutely quids in. I chose the easy life and just stayed as a long term employee until I eventually took VR.
So when you came back working part time what were you living on? The VR pay off money?
All workplace pensions are run in a slightly different way. To reiterate my situation, I can take 25% tax free at age 55 without this being further taxed. I have looked into this in depth now and whatever my company’s fault’s they do look after their workforce when it comes to pensions.
My plans are all but ready to be forwarded to L&G when I receive their letter very soon.
Thanks to all of you for the posts in this thread. The further advice has been very useful.
I would say DO IT don’t think it.
Oddly I loved nights its just the World works on the dayshift. Expect a withdrawal period when you come off.
L&G must do all the pensions now. :-p Ditto mine was as you say.
Random posting but finding my feet again.
A bit like the jet lag-type symptoms I experience every weekend I reckon! :o
Yes, they appear to be very good at it. They certainly keep me informed of changes, etc.