New pension rules ( April 2015)

[condor]

Is there a reasonably easy to understand guide on the new pension rules that come into effect from April 2015?

I've just received an annual summary from one of my private pension providers ( who I stopped paying into when I left the Company 10 years ago). It's for a trivial 'transfer sum' of £8K. I have 2 more trivial transfer sums from 2 other Companies that I expect to receive annual reports from in the next few weeks and which I also stopped paying into some time ago. I'm 55 and these intended to pay a small pension at 65.

My thinking is I can cash in these annuity based pots from April, perhaps one a year or take the 25% tax free part of each to reduce the sum and then take them out one at a time. I currently pay no income tax or NI as I have a very small income from my pet sitting business (less than £5K per annum).

[condor]

Thanks Ginge

From that, first of all I think I need to find out if my 3 different pension pots allow it.

[condor]

That would be the plan, though I understand that there are likely to be transfer fees involved. I received the report from one of the other trivial plans and it's for a transfer value of just over £3K, which isn't too bad on my £1.7K contributions over 10 years.
I'm also not sure if transfer fees are a flat administration fee or a percentage fee.