Any pension experts on board?

nichorob

nichorob

nichorob

Soldato
Joined
1 Apr 2003
Posts
5,244
Location
London
Afternoon,

I'm just in between jobs at the moment having just resigned from my current job and I am currently waiting for all the paper work. I work in the public sector and have paid around £5000 into a Local Government Pension Scheme over the last 4 years.

Now i'm leaving the organization, what happens to it? Can I just withdraw my contributions as I assume it won't transfer anywhere?

Thank you.
 
nichorob said:
Afternoon,

I'm just in between jobs at the moment having just resigned from my current job and I am currently waiting for all the paper work. I work in the public sector and have paid around £5000 into a Local Government Pension Scheme over the last 4 years.

Now i'm leaving the organization, what happens to it? Can I just withdraw my contributions as I assume it won't transfer anywhere?

Thank you.
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You can either leave it and claim whatever pension you would be entitled to when you reach the pension age stipulated by the pension, or you can transfer it to another occupational or private pension plan.

I doubt you can 'cash it in'
 
I doubt whether you can withdraw the money


Your 2 options will likely be:
  • Transfer the fund to a new pension scheme, either with you new employer or a personal one - probably not a good option since the transfer value will not be too good
  • Leave it where it is, and use it to draw a pension when you reach 60 or whatever
Given it's a public sector scheme, you are probably better off leaving it there

When you get the paperwork, it should tell you what you options are
 
Sometimes you can pull out contributions if you were only there a certain length of time, but I think 4 years is beyond the limit.
 
vonhelmet said:
Sometimes you can pull out contributions if you were only there a certain length of time, but I think 4 years is beyond the limit.
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normally only 2 years. You can get a refund of your own contributions less NI & Tax. once your over the 2 years - as above options are:

-leave alone in civil service scheme (probably best)
-transfer benefits to new company scheme if they accept an incoming transfer
-move to a Personal Pension - however likely to need IFA advice on the matter to complete a final salary to PP transfer as it's fairly complicated.

If you need or want anything else let me know
 
Booyaka is right. The best option is most probably to leave it in the civil service scheme.

You can withdraw all pensions in cash at age 60 and cancel them, however it has to be under the triviality limit, which is quite low. If you are able to do that then you've either got massive savings outside of pensions or it's a life of poverty until you die.

The general rule is that once the money is in a pension scheme it doesn't come back out until it's annuity time.
 
The Halk said:
Booyaka is right.
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i hope so - it's my job to advise on pension transfers and alike!!:D:D

Triviality is currently when ALL you total pension pots add up to less than 1% of the lifetime allowance (currently 1.8 million but back to 1.5 million @ april 2012)

therefore if you total pension (private, company etc) all total less than currently £18k you can get your 25% tax free lump sum and the rest as a lump sum less tax at your prevailing rate.
 
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