Help transferring a pension from Australia back to the UK

paulbrooke999

Hi I hope you can help...

A few years ago I emigratted to Perth, Australia. I transferred my UK pension to one in Perth. I stayed in Australia only for a few months before decideding it wasn't for me. I've been back in the UK for the last 12 months and now would like to transfer my pension back to the UK. I work for the NHS and they advised me to complete some paperwork and send to the pension company in Australia so they can transfer the funds into my NHS pension. This was several weeks ago and I heard nothing so I started to send a couple of emails to my original contacts in Australia... again heard nothing back. So I looked on the companies website and found a few other names to contact. I've now heard back and this was their response:

"
Hello Paul

Thankyou for your email.

Unfotuneately Australian super legislation does not allow a transfer out of superannution to another country until preservation rules are met or retirement.
"

Obviously I'm a little confused as I could transfer it to Australia with no issues but now they say I cant transfer it back, I was expecting to be able to do this with maybe some charges but to be told I cant seems very strange. I have no intention of living / going back to Australia and concerned that if I do wait until retirement age I will get taxed a lot getting my money from Australia... please help as I dont know who to turn to for advice

bendix

I don't think it's possible.

If you had started that pension in Australia and you are not an Australian or NZ citizen you could have taken it out in full upon departure, but the complicating factor here is the fact that you transferred it in from the UK to start with.

Depending upon your age, those funds are now 'preserved' in Australia until you are somewhere between 55 and 60, depending upon date of birth.

In one way, it's not a big problem. Indeed, it has some benefits. For example, in Australia you can access ALL the funds at once and do whatever you want with them, rather than be limited to only 25% and then have to sort out an annuity or income drawdown.

My advice would be to make sure you keep in touch with the pensions company in Australia, let them know your addresses in future and sit back and let it ride. Then set up another pension in the UK to run alongside it.

That means, come retirement age, you will have UK funds and Australian funds, the latter of which you can access all in one go.

I recently discovered I had a small pot of A$20,000 in a retirement fund in Australia, the result of two years working there a while ago. Being a NZ passport holder, I can't touch it until my 60th birthday, but that's no problem. It's simple sitting there doing its thing.

I consider it a small bonus to look forward to, and not part of my real pension strategy.

paulbrooke999

Thanks Bendix for your help, If this is the case I'm happy about leaving it in Australia, Its just been so hard to get any information as the people in the NHS pension dept dont seem to care and the people in Australia either dont respond or respond with the briefest of emails. Thanks again for your help in this matter

Paul