Nevertheless, barely extra pension pots had been accessed for the primary time, with the quantity climbing 4.9% from 705,661 to 739,535.
That means that whereas extra individuals have been raiding their pension financial savings, as pension corporations have been reporting, customers have been taking out smaller quantities.
The brand new FCA figures backed that up by displaying the vast majority of pension plans accessed had been value lower than £10,000, most of which had been taken as money.
There have been round 320,000 pots accessed value lower than £10,000, with 279,229 of them cashed in and solely 6,397 taken as annuities.
Steve Webb, LCP associate and former Pensions Minister, mentioned: “These figures spotlight the truth that lots of of hundreds of individuals attain retirement every year with very small pension pots.”
On the prime finish there have been round 35,000 pension pots accessed value £250,000 or extra with the bulk taken as drawdown. Some 29,332 had been taken as drawdown, 3,800 as uncrystallised lump sum (UFPLS), simply over 2,000 as annuities and simply 407 as money.
The figures confirmed that gross sales of annuities fell significantly, with the variety of annuities bought in 2022/23 being 59,163, down 13.6% from 68,514 within the earlier 12 months.
The recognition of annuities was greater amongst older individuals with 58% of annuities taken out by these aged between 55-74, and simply 33% taken out by these aged beneath 55. Some 8% of annuities had been taken out by these aged 75 or over.
Cashing in confirmed the alternative pattern with 69% of encashments taken out by 55-64 12 months olds and simply 28% by these aged between 65-74. Some 2% of encashments had been by the over 75s and 1% by the beneath 55s.
The variety of DB to DC transfers continued to fall, dropping 32% from 26,619 in 2021/22 to 18,073 in 2022/23. The pattern confirmed a continued decline from the 30,596 in 2020/21.
The variety of corporations that obtained DB transfers additionally dropped, falling from 120 to 116 between 2021/22 and 2022/23.
Brian Nimmo, head of redress options at actuarial consultancy OAC, mentioned: “Falling switch values are prone to have accelerated the pattern as pension savers more and more see the chance in dropping the worth of the ensures in a DB pension by transferring right into a DC association.
“A big variety of advisers have stopped advising on DB transfers too as they determined that growing regulation makes it too dangerous for his or her enterprise, and the FCA’s ‘polluter pays’ reforms could speed up that pattern.”
