Please read the enhanced protection certificate notes for more details

Failure to continue to meet the conditions in paragraph 12 Schedule 36 will mean that you are potentially liable to the lifetime allowance charge. See HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) technical guidance 'Protecting pension rights from tax charges: Enhanced protection: Cessation of protection'. You must notify HMRC that you have lost enhanced protection within 90 days of the loss. Failure to do so may result in a financial penalty.

If you choose to give up this protection you must notify HMRC as soon as possible after you make your decision.

Your tax free lump sum is the percentage as the value of each benefit crystallisation event. This is the value of your lump sum rights not yet in payment, as a percentage of your pension rights not yet in payment on 5 April 2006. This percentage is the maximum that can be paid as a tax free lump sum irrespective of the value of any pre 6 April 2006 lump sum rights in the scheme and irrespective of the rules of the scheme.

If there is a zero figure on the certificate, this means that no tax-free lump sum is payable.

If there is no information about your tax free lump sum on the certificate then you have no protected lump sum rights under enhanced protection (because your lump sum rights did not exceed £375,000 on 5 April 2006). In this case your lump sum rights will usually be those permitted under paragraphs 1 to 3 of Schedule 29 Finance Act 2004 (unless you have lump sum rights of more than 25% in the scheme).