Laura Suter: So the age that you can access your pension depends slightly on what the type of pension is. So, if we take the state pension age first, at the moment, you can access that from the age of 66. But that is gradually increasing. So if you're not yet at retirement age, then you might see that number increase. So it's going up to 67 in the next few years, and it's expected to go up to 68, after that. If you're a long way off retirement, it may well rise above that. Now any personal pensions or employer pensions you have generally will allow you to access them from the age of 55 onwards, although each scheme does have slightly different rules. One thing to note though, is just because you can access it from the age of 55 doesn't necessarily mean you should, with those pensions you will have a finite pot of money. So if you decide to start taking the money at 55, for example, rather than 65, that's 10 extra years that the money has got to last. There are some slight exceptions to those so you might be able to access that money before the age of 55, if you're in ill health for example, but they are very rare occasions.
