Video falsely claims pensions will have to be withdrawn within two days to avoid fines

Alarmist videos circulating online falsely claim that from next month people will have to withdraw their pensions within two days or risk hefty fines.

The videos, which have been shared on Facebook and TikTok, appear to feature Sir Keir Starmer making an announcement about forthcoming pension changes.

A voice, which seems to resemble the Prime Minister’s, says: “I confirm starting the first of November, the government has quietly pushed through one of the most shocking pension changes in UK history and barely anyone is talking about it.

“Under the new policy, pensioners now have just two days to withdraw their pensions once available. Fail to do so and you’ll be fined or lose up to 20% of your money instantly.”

But there has been no official announcement of a policy matching the claim in this video.

Such a major change to pension rules would likely generate substantial political scrutiny and media attention, and there is no evidence of this happening.

It’s unclear if the video is referring to the state pension, private pensions, or what it would mean for pensioners to have “just two days to withdraw their pension”.

In most cases, state pensions are paid into bank accounts every four weeks and so do not require pensioners to ‘withdraw’ their money in a certain time period in order to receive them.

Pensioners can, however, defer claiming their state pension for at least 12 months in a row to get a one-off lump sum. However, this will be taxed.

Personal pensions (which you set up yourself) and workplace pensions (arranged by your employer) have set ages for when people can start taking money from them. This is not normally before 55. You can usually take out up to 25% of the amount built up as a tax-free lump sum, up to a maximum withdrawal of £268,275.

If your total annual income, including state pension, private pension, earnings from employment, investments or any taxable benefits add up to more than the personal allowance (currently £12,570) you will have to pay tax on the excess above this amount.

The forthcoming Autumn Budget could potentially include a change to pension rules, but this will not be announced until 26 November—well after the 1 November date the video claims that the new policy is coming into force on.

Clues this announcement is fake

One of the clips includes footage of Mr Starmer standing behind a lectern with the words ‘Securing Britain’s Future’.

Full Fact matched this to a speech Mr Starmer made in May, where he unveiled plans for tightened visa rules, and did not discuss changes to pensions. His mouth does not match the words that are playing over the clip.

The audio used in this video has likely been created by artificial intelligence, using a text-to-speech tool (although it’s not impossible it has been created another way, for example by an impersonator).

Another clue the video is not real is that the Prime Minister appears to say “watch till the end”, the kind of language used by online content creators rather than politicians.

The voiceover claims the change is being introduced as an “efficiency measure” and then proceeds to describe it as a “cruel attack on pensioners” and quote opposition criticism; comments which would be unlikely to be made by the leader in charge of bringing in the policy.

We have been fact checking a spate of these kinds of misleading videos recently, which spread misinformation about incoming changes to areas of everyday life, such as finance, travel or personal freedoms.

Before sharing content like this that you see on social media, first consider whether it comes from a reliable and trustworthy source. Our Full Fact toolkit can help you do this.