Should/can I merge pensions?

HandyToes

Hi
I have three different pensions from three different jobs, all of which the employers contributed to too (before the LGPS came about). I am currently on maternity leave and unemployed.
They don't equate to very much (approx £12000) The question is do I just leave them now until I am ready to retire? Or would they be better off merged in some way? One is from the NHS, one from the Pensions Trust and one with South Yorkshire Pensions Authority.

Thanks

HandyToes

I just wanted to add that I plan to continue paying into a LGPS again when I go back to work.
Thanks

xylophone

Are all three deferred final salary schemes?

hyubh

HandyToes wrote: »

I have three different pensions from three different jobs, all of which the employers contributed to too (before the LGPS came about).

Do you mean, before your membership of the LGPS came about? Because the LGPS as a scheme is over 90 years old...

I am currently on maternity leave and unemployed.

I don't get this - if you are on maternity leave (or for that matter, any sort of 'leave'), surely you're employed, not unemployed...?

They don't equate to very much (approx £12000) The question is do I just leave them now until I am ready to retire? Or would they be better off merged in some way? One is from the NHS, one from the Pensions Trust and one with South Yorkshire Pensions Authority.

With the LGPS at least (of which South Yorks Pensions is a part), you need to be a current employee, usually within 12 months of joining, to be able to transfer in.

HandyToes

Sorry, hopefully someone still watching...slightly delayed response.

Xylophone- so I don't think they're final salary schemes.

Hyubh- They were all offered through each of my jobs, so does that make them all LGPS?
Regarding leave, what I was trying to illustrate is that I am within the 9 months of maternity leave that I get SMP for but don't have a job to go back to, meaning at the end of the 9 months I will be unemployed.

Should I just wait until I start work again. Join the pension scheme they offer and then merge them all into that one?

Thanks

hyubh

HandyToes wrote: »

Xylophone- so I don't think they're final salary schemes.

Then you think wrong in the case of the NHS and LGPS ones, and possibly wrong in the case of the Pensions Trust one (the Pensions Trust run a number of schemes).

Hyubh- They were all offered through each of my jobs, so does that make them all LGPS?

No, only the South Yorks one.

Join the pension scheme they offer and then merge them all into that one?

Yes to the former, maybe not to the latter (you haven't provided enough info). The value of your deferred NHS and LGPS pensions (and possibly the Pensions Trust one too) will increase with CPI every year, and will also have a normal retirement age that won't move from what it was when you left. Rejoin the LGPS in April next year or later however, and transferring in the old NHS and LGPS membership will put it all against the normal retirement age of the 'new', career-average LGPS, which will match your state retirement age. Further, while the transfer will be neutral at the outset (1), a lack of career progression in the new job might mean over time, the value of the transferred in benefits decrease relative to what they would have been otherwise (2).

(1) Transfers between most public sector and a few other schemes are subject to 'club' rules which aim to achieve this.

(2) I don't think it's been decided how transfers will work in the 2014 LGPS yet. I'm extrapolating from how they work in the civil service 'Nuvos' scheme, which is career average already but treats transfers in on a final salary basis.