Taking your pension benefits from the Scheme will provide you with a regular income for the rest of your life no matter how long you live.
In addition:
You can find out more about the pension you are expected to receive if you take a look at your ‘closing statement’.
Log in to My pension portal to see your statement.
The amount of pension you may get at retirement will be affected by things like:
Once you’ve reached age 55, you can ask for a retirement quote based on the age you’d like to retire by emailing the Scheme Administrator. If you choose not to do anything between now and when you’re due to retire, we’ll write to you with your retirement statement six months before your Normal Retirement Date (age 65). This will show you the pension and tax-free cash sum option provided by the Scheme as well as your estimated transfer value.
When you start receiving your pension, you can take part of it as a tax free cash lump sum, the rest will be treated just like your salary and will be subject to income tax. If your income goes above certain limits, the administrators of the Scheme will deduct the tax from your pension unless instructed otherwise by HMRC. You should keep this in mind if you’re planning to take a flexible retirement and receive a salary and pension at the same time.
Remember, there’s a limit to the amount of pension you can build up over your lifetime, without incurring additional tax charges. This is called the Lifetime Allowance and exceeding it will trigger an additional tax charge at retirement.
Before making a decision about how to take your pension it’s worthwhile talking to an independent financial adviser who can look at your options with you, understand what you want from retirement, and put forward recommendations.
What’s right for you will depend on your personal circumstances. For example, if a regular, guaranteed income is important to you then taking that from the Scheme could be a good option. If, however, you’d prefer to choose when and how you use the money from your pension at different times in your retirement, then it may not be quite the right approach. A financial adviser will help you answer these questions.
You must take financial advice if you’re thinking of transferring the value of your Scheme benefits to another pension arrangement. This is a legal requirement to make sure it’s the right thing for you.
Remember, Raytheon will pay for you to take advice from WPSA – an independent firm of financial advisers who are authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and have been appointed by Raytheon to look after members of the Scheme.