Just over 645,000 pension plans were accessed during 2018/19 to buy an annuity, move into drawdown or take a first cash withdrawal, the regulator reports.

Some 48% of pots were accessed without regulated advice or guidance being taken by the plan holder.

Overall fewer than 4 in 10 pension savers (37%) took regulated advice with 15% of plan holders receiving only Pension Wise guidance. 

Some 40% of regular withdrawals were withdrawn at an annual rate of 8% or more of the pot value, says the FCA, considerably higher than the 4% ‘safe withdrawal’ rate used by many professional Financial Planners.

Four in 10 of all the pension pots accessed had a value of less than £10,000 and over 350,000 pension pots were fully withdrawn at the first time of access with 90% holding less than £30,000 in value.

The report also reveals that there were 57,000 defined benefit (DB) to defined contribution (DC) pension transfers.

Source: FCA

Providers reported that in 2018/19 there were 327,500 pension plans where the plan holder made regular withdrawals either by income drawdown or by UFPLS. There were also 141,500 plans from which ad-hoc partial withdrawals were made.

The FCA has been collating data on retirement income since the Pension Freedoms arrived in 2015.

The figures point to a much more disparate pensions income market post the Freedoms with income drawdown and full pension plan withdrawal the most popular options, used by 85% of plan holders.

Detailed tables suggest that the number of pension plans used to buy annuities has declined since 2015, dropping to only 11% of plans accessed in 2018 from 13% in 2016/17.

In contrast plans used for income drawdown have grown and now form 30% of the total although there was a small decline from 2017/18 when income drawn peaked at 32%.

Over the past three years the number of plans fully withdrawn has remained steady at 55% of the total.