Q: I have a county council pension that is due to pay out in August 2025 when I reach 60. I have poor pension provision due to being a carer from the age of 26 and working part time most of my working life.

It is not a big amount of money and I need to maximise my pension income as best I can. Should I leave it with the council (if that is an option until I retire at 67) or should I take it out and look to get as good a return on it as possible and if so what would you suggest are good options to consider?

As the pension you have built up was while working for the council, it is likely to be a local government defined benefit (DB) pension. This means your employer promises to pay you a set income from your normal retirement age, in your case age 60, based on your salary — either your career average or final salary — and the number of years you were a member of the scheme.

Someone in a career average DB scheme that offers 1/60th accrual would be promised 1/60th of their career average salary as a pension for life from their normal retirement age. If their career average salary was £20,000 and they were in the scheme for 30 years, they would be entitled to an inflation-protected pension worth £10,000 a year in retirement (1/60th of £20,000, which is £333.33, multiplied by 30).

You may be able to take your DB pension out directly as a lump sum, but only if it is worth £30,000 or less. You can find out how much it is worth by requesting something called a cash equivalent transfer value from your scheme. This places a pounds and pence value on your promised pension, with the option to then transfer to a defined contribution (DC) arrangement, where you manage your pension pot yourself and what you get is based on what you pay in plus investment growth.

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If it is worth more than £30,000 you may still have the option of transferring to a DC arrangement. However, the law says you will need to take regulated financial advice before transferring a fund of this size. And if your adviser thinks transferring is a bad idea and doesn’t provide a positive recommendation, you may struggle to find a DC provider willing to accept the transfer.

It’s important to remember that transferring a DB pension, even a relatively small one, is a significant financial decision and one you should consider very carefully. These types of pensions have all-but-vanished in the private sector, in part because of the cost to employers — meaning they are very valuable to those lucky enough to benefit from them. If you transfer to a DC scheme, you will need to take responsibility for investing your money and withdrawing your pot sustainably.

Some DB schemes will allow you to delay taking your promised income and may even provide an uplift in that income in return. This could then help your retirement income, so it’s worth speaking to your scheme as soon as possible to find out whether this is an option.

State pension

As you’ve worked part-time since age 26 and have spent time caring during that period, you should check your national insurance record to make sure there aren’t any gaps. You need a 35-year national insurance record to get the full state pension and at least a ten-year record to get anything from the state, with the amount reduced for every missing year.

Crucially, you are entitled to national insurance credits for caring for loved ones. If you think there are national insurance years missing from your record, you can write to the Carer’s Allowance Unit — details available here gov.uk/carers-credit/how-to-claim —including any evidence of the years you think are missing.

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You can request a printed national insurance statement from the Department for Work and Pensions by post or phone. You can also do this at gov.uk/check-national-insurance-record.

It is also possible to pay voluntary national contributions to boost your state pension entitlement, although you need to make sure the sums add up to benefit you. Visit gov.uk/voluntary-national-insurance-contributions for lots of useful information that could help.

Tom Selby is director of public policy at the investment platform AJ Bell. He is a prominent spokesman on retirement issues and has successfully campaigned for a number of reforms, including banning pension cold-calling and increasing pension allowances.