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Taking your pension - forms, guidance notes and examples

When you take your pension benefits Windsor Life will ask you to complete a Lifetime Allowance Declaration (Form D) to work out if you have to pay any tax to HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC). If your total benefits from all Registered Pension Schemes are worth more than £1 million we will also ask you complete an additional more detailed Declaration (Form D1).

You can download copies of the Declarations here:

  • Adobe Acrobat Form D - Standard Lifetime Allowance Declaration (91Kb)
  • Adobe Acrobat Form D1 - Detailed Lifetime Allowance Declaration (121Kb)

Here are some examples to help you complete Form D (Lifetime Allowance Declaration) and Form D1 (Lifetime Allowance Detailed Questionnaire).

  • Example 1 - A Pension with Windsor Life and no other pension benefits held elsewhere.
  • Example 2 - A Pension with Windsor Life and a former employer's pension.
  • Example 3 - A Pension with Windsor Life, three former employer's pensions and a pre 6 April 2006 annuity in payment from another pension provider.
  • Example 4 - A Pension with Windsor Life and a post 6 April 2006 annuity in payment (and associated tax free cash lump sum) with another pension provider that will require the completion of additional Form D1.

Example 1:
William Brown has a Personal Pension with Windsor Life. The current fund value is £35,000 and he is ready to take his pension from those benefits. William has no other pension benefit provision with any other pension provider or from any former employer. He is not receiving any form of pension benefits yet.

After reading the quick rule of thumb in the notes, he realises that as the total benefits from all his registered pension schemes (just the benefits with Windsor Life worth £35,000) is well below the SLA of £1.8m for the 2010/11 to 2015/16 tax years he can sign the declaration form.

He turns to SECTION 1 of Form D and checks the personal details that have been completed. He is happy that these are correct.

SECTION 2 - His total benefits fall below the SLA. He has not registered with HMRC for Enhanced/Primary Protection or a Lifetime Allowance Enhancement Factor. He is not in a position where he can retire before the normal minimum pension age and so is not entitled to a reduced SLA.

SECTION 3 - He understands that he must provide a complete and accurate response to the declaration. He signs, dates and prints his name at the bottom of the form.

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Example 2:
Anne Williams has a Personal Pension with Windsor Life. The current fund value is £100,000 and she is ready to take her pension from those benefits. She is also due to receive a pension from a former employer worth £25,000 per annum (gross). The scheme was a defined benefit (also known as a final salary) scheme. The notes suggests that she will have benefits below the Standard Lifetime Allowance (SLA).

However, as Anne has to make this declaration, she calculates the value of her benefits (with the help of the table in the notes on her form) in respect of all of her pension arrangements as follows:

Fund with Windsor Life = £100,000
Former employers scheme pension : £25,000 X 20 = £500,000
Total = £600,000 (£100,000 + £500,000)

As the total from all of her pension arrangements is well below the SLA of £1.8m for the 2010/11 to 2015/16 tax years, she can sign the declaration form.

She turns to SECTION 1 of Form D and checks the personal details that have been completed. She is happy that these are correct.

SECTION 2 - Her total benefits fall below the SLA. She has not registered with HMRC for Enhanced/Primary Protection or a Lifetime Allowance Enhancement Factor. She is not in a position where she can retire before the normal minimum pension age and so is not entitled to a reduced SLA.

SECTION 3 - She understands that she must provide a complete and accurate response to the declaration. She signs, dates and prints her name at the bottom of the form.

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Example 3:
Charles Evans has a Personal Pension with Windsor Life. The current fund value is £50,000 and he is ready to take his pension from those benefits. Charles is also due to receive a pension from three former employers worth £5,000, £10,000 and £15,000 per annum (gross). The schemes were all defined benefit (also known as a final salary) schemes. Charles is also already in receipt of a pension from another pension provider. This pension started prior to 6 April 2006. This is currently worth £10,000 per annum gross).

As Charles has a significant pension entitlement, he calculates the value of his benefits (with the help of the table in the notes) in respect of all of his pension arrangements as follows:

Fund Value with Windsor Life = £50,000
Former Employer (1) : £5,000 X 20 = £100,000
Former Employer (2) : £10,000 X 20 = £200,000
Former Employer (3) : £15,000 X 20 = £300,000
Pre 6 April 2006 pension in payment : £10,000 X 25 = £250,000
Total = £900,000 (£50,000 + £100,000 + £200,000 + £300,000 + £250,000)

The total value of his benefits is below the SLA of £1.8m for the 2010/11 to 2015/16 tax years so he can sign the declaration form.

He turns to SECTION 1 of Form D and checks the personal details that have been completed. He is happy that these are correct.

SECTION 2 - His total benefits fall under the SLA. He has not registered with HMRC for Enhanced/Primary Protection or a Lifetime Allowance Enhancement Factor. He is not in a position where he can retire before the normal minimum pension age and so is not entitled to a reduced SLA.

SECTION 3 - He understands that he must provide a complete and accurate response to the declaration. He signs, dates and prints his name at the bottom of the form.

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Example 4:
Zara Croft has a Personal Pension with Windsor Life. The current fund value is £200,000 and she is ready to take her pension from those benefits. Zara has a pension already in payment with another provider. This started after 6 April 2006 and is currently worth £30,000 per annum (gross).The purchase price of the annuity was £750,000. She also took an associated tax free cash lump sum worth £250,000.

As Zara has significant pension benefits, she calculates the value of her benefits (with the help of the table in the notes) in respect of all of her pension arrangements as follows:

Fund Value with Windsor Life = £200,000
Tax Free Lump Sum = £250,000
Purchase Price Of Annuity In Payment = £750,000
Total = £1,200,000 (£200,000 + £250,000 + £750,000)

She double checks her calculations as the value of her benefits in total is significant. She is certain she has taken into account all of her benefits from all of her arrangements. Although the total value of her benefits is below the Standard Lifetime Allowance (SLA) of £1.8m that applies for the 2010/11 to 2015/16 tax years, she must complete a more detailed questionnaire (Form D1) from Windsor Life rather than Form D.

Windsor Life have said that where the total value of all benefits is above £1,000,000, Form D1 should be requested/downloaded and completed.

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