Aviva: Pension Freedoms: No early sign of coronavirus “dash for cash”

HMRC have published the Q1 2020 pension freedom figures (1).

Alistair McQueen, head of savings and retirement at Aviva said:

“Today’s figures, through to the end of March 2020, give an early indication of pension freedom behaviour in response to coronavirus. Positively, there is no early sign of a “dash for cash”. Q1 2020 saw a record £2.46bn of taxable private pension wealth withdrawn by 348,000 individuals. But the quarter-on-quarter increase is in line with previous trends.

“Q1 typically sees an increase in withdrawals, as people approach the tax-year end. This year, the first quarter saw a 10% increase in total withdrawals, compared to Q4 2019. This is lower than the 13% increase witnessed in Q1 2018, and only marginally up on the 8% increase in 2019, suggesting no significant early change of behaviour in response to coronavirus.

“This is good news. Aviva has been encouraging its customers to keep calm, focus on the longer-term and seek help from services such as the government’s Pension Wise service. Today’s figures give early confidence that this guidance is being followed.” 

1 https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/flexible-payments-from-pensions