As an alternative to leaving your Pension Account invested or retiring and drawing your benefits from the Scheme, you can transfer value of your Pension Account to another approved pension arrangement. This could be a personal pension or a pension with a new employer.
If you are considering transferring the value of your Pension Account to another pension arrangement, please contact us. You will be sent a quotation, together with forms that need to be completed and returned before the transfer value can be paid to your chosen provider.
Taking financial advice
The Trustee strongly recommends that you take independent financial advice before making a decision about your pension. You can find an approved adviser near you by visiting www.unbiased.co.uk.
The Government has set up the MoneyHelper service to provide free and impartial advice. You can find out more by visiting the MoneyHelper website: www.moneyhelper.org.uk/en/pensions-and-retirement. Before completing a transfer there may be a requirement for you to be referred to MoneyHelper to receive specialist pension scams guidance.
In addition, if you are over the age of 50, Pension Wise is a free and impartial service from MoneyHelper that provides you with help understanding your pension choices. The Trustees are required to direct you to seek guidance from Pension Wise before you can transfer your Scheme benefits. You are excluded from this requirement if you meet certain criteria, or if you choose to opt out of receiving the Pension Wise guidance. You can find more information, including how to book an appointment on their website: www.moneyhelper.org.uk/en/pensions-and-retirement/pension-wise
Restrictions on transferring your pension
From 30 November 2021, the Government introduced conditions which must be met if you wish to transfer your pension out of the Scheme. These have been introduced to help combat the increase in pension scams which are taking place. Based on reports to Action Fraud, over £30 million was lost to pension scams between 2017 and 2020 with scammers adopting increasingly sophisticated tactics.
Should you request a transfer and one or more of the conditions cannot be met, you will not be able to transfer your pension out of the Scheme to your chosen provider. Please be aware that if you request a transfer we will ask you for certain information to be provided to help us determine if the conditions have been met and we may also need to speak to you by phone.
Should we require any further information or need to speak to you by phone, this must be directly with you and not via any third party (for example an Independent Financial Advisor). Please be patient when requesting a transfer as these requirements are adding significant processing time while we carry out all of the required checks.
For further details on the conditions that must be met and how we will process your transfer request, click here.
Do you know how to spot a pension scam?
As already noted above, there are a significant number of pension scams taking place and you need to be aware of the companies and individuals who may try to convince you to transfer your benefits to an arrangement that is later found to be a scam. You can find out more information on how to identify and avoid potential scams by clicking here.