Transferring Pension fund overseas

tc6100

I am planning to emigrate in 3 months. I have contacted my pension provider and they have told that I cannot access the money until I am 55 (I am 28 now), even if I am going overseas permanently. They said I can transfer the money to a new scheme in Australia (my new location) and I asked if I could then take the money directly from there and convert it to cash? They weren't sure. They said as I have gone past the 30 day cancellation period I cannot access the money.

Does anyone have any ideas how I can access my funds? It seems unfair that you cannot access money that is yours.

dunstonh

Does anyone have any ideas how I can access my funds?

When you get to Australia you request to transfer your pension there. Look up QORPs (Qualifying Overseas Recognised Pension Scheme )to get an idea of the process.

It seems unfair that you cannot access money that is yours.

Perhaps it would be fairer to take back all the tax relief and and tax free growth as well as any DSS rebates. I doubt it though. Transferring it does seem the fairer option.

tc6100

Thanks for that Dunston. I would be perfectly happy to pay the 22% (or whatever the figure would be) if it meant I could have access to the money in the same way as if I had paid it straight into my bank from my net pay. A further piece of info is that when I left a previous company about 4 years ago, they gave me the employee's contributions as a lump sum, but apparently this was because some schemes have different time lmits. It seems odd that there is an arbitrary time limit on when you cease to be able to get the money that after all, came out of your own pay.

Thanks for the advice about Australia.

dunstonh

A further piece of info is that when I left a previous company about 4 years ago, they gave me the employee's contributions as a lump sum, but apparently this was because some schemes have different time lmits. It seems odd that there is an arbitrary time limit on when you cease to be able to get the money that after all, came out of your own pay.

Final salary schemes have a limited period that they are allowed to refund contributions minus the employer contribution and tax if you leave employment. It is to allow schemes not to have to deal with small individual pots which dont really benefit anyone.

Money purchase schemes may be called pensions but they work differently.

Cook_County

You cannot access cash; you cannot take loans etc or the scheme would fail to be a QROPS - just look at Singapore to see what happens where this is abused.

You can transfer to an approved QROPS in Australia of which there are plenty...

jonathon_hart

One thing to be aware of is that, unless they have changed the rules in Australia recently, you only get 6 months from emigrating to transfer otherwise the transfer is taxed at the Australian end.

Jonathon

EdInvestor

Cook_County wrote: »

You cannot access cash; you cannot take loans etc or the scheme would fail to be a QROPS - just look at Singapore to see what happens where this is abused.

Do you have any details of what exactly was going on in the Singapore QROPs, CC? Reports of the HMRC crackdown have been vague to say the least.

Cook_County

I think this Article in the Telegraph is quite good.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2008/07/02/cmpensions02.xml

Panthera are out of the game - it may be their fault??? Generally the trade press have been saying that pension trustees hve been putting two fingers up to HMRC once they had got the cash, but I don't know if that is the case here...