Your pension is for your retirement, but there may be times when you need to partially or fully withdraw it. Perhaps you are leaving Cayman and wish to move your pension with you, or maybe an expensive medical emergency has come up. Certain conditions under the National Pensions Act do make early access and pension withdrawals possible.
1. If the value of your pension is less than CI$5,000, then you may apply to withdraw your pension, subject to certain conditions
2. Where a member reaches age 65 and wants to but is unable to transfer their pension benefit to an approved pension plan, retirement savings account or similar arrangement, or life annuity 3. You have Additional Voluntary Contributions Additional Voluntary Contributions are extra payments to your pension. If you have AVCs, you may be granted early access to them, so long as you are using them under these four categories:
Medical purposes
Temporary unemployment
Housing purposes
Educational purposes
Further conditions apply under the National Pensions Act, and the Department of Labour and Pensions provides guidance on this.
You are permitted to access your AVCs up to 4 times each year. There is no requirement for you to repay this. What if I am already retired? If you have reached your retirement eligibility age, you may begin the process of accessing your pension benefits through a Retirement Savings Arrangement (RSA) or life annuity. For more information on this, check out our blog What to expect when you retire.