Hello Richard
I fear the answer lies very much in the terms and conditions set out in your pension plan and I strongly recommend you read these in great detail and if you have any further questions armed with the "can do's and can't do's " covered in those terms, please come back with some specific questions based upon those conditions.
The old saw "prices can go up and down etc" applies to pensions as well as any other saving vehicle.
If however you took advice to retire at 50 from an IFA and it could be proven that thry had wrongly advised you in writing to do so without pointing out the ups and down rules as I call them, then you may have a case under the Financial Services Act wherein a complaint of them mis-selling might yield some comfort, though it would probably be unlikely.
One thing you ought to do is search for the ibformation supplied when the pension fund wrote to you in 2000/1 offerng you the pension from the age of 50 and see if the company explained in clear terms the downside of you taking your pension at 50 as opposed to the state retirement age, which for men is presently 65 I seem to recall for men og your age.
I am a woman of 52 and I have faced similar challenges as to what to do with my pension and decided I had no choice but to go back to work after 13 years of self employment, so I fully sympathise with your predicament.
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Thank you in advance and good luck in sorting out this challenge.
Natasha, York, UK
towards your future, together