Nest Pensions - Transfer out not possible

stunews

So I have a Nest pension from a job a couple of years back.
I see that the contributions fee is a bit expensive compared to another option I'd like to go with, so I'm never go to contribute again.

I think I'd rather just transfer it to another scheme.

Here's the kicker - you can't..

Didn't read that before I signed up for it.. Oh wait, I didn't sign up for it. I was autoenrolled..

Are they really trying to say this is legal?

greenglide

Yes it is legal.

Remember the advantage of auto-enrollment is that the employer contributes, this means it is still a "good idea".

There are better schemes but NEST is still better than not taking advantage of the employer contributions, especially as the minimum employer contributions are due to increase in coming years.

jamesd

It's legal, laws were specifically written to allow NEST to do this.

There's talk of this possibly changing either late in 2015 or around 2018. Those who are 55 or older can already transfer out.

xylophone

http://www.out-law.com/articles/2013/july/restrictions-on-state-backed-nest-pension-scheme-to-be-removed-in-2017/

jamesd

xylophone, that's now a bit out of date. See this for a more recent update that could remove the individual transfer restriction from 1 October 2015.

More recently a couple of Lords tabled an amendment to the Pensions Bill that would require removal of the NEST restrictions within a month of the Bill becoming law.

Still no actual law so the restrictions remain but at least it's heading in the right direction.

Stunews, the best you can do is keep waiting and watching for whenever/ifever the restrictions are removed. While the current government seems to want to do that there's no guarantee that the next one will.

kidmugsy

stunews wrote: »

Didn't read that before I signed up for it.. Oh wait, I didn't sign up for it. I was autoenrolled..

You had the right to opt out. Why didn't you?

System

kidmugsy wrote: »

You had the right to opt out. Why didn't you?

We all have the right to opt out of the United Kingdom.
But most people don't, they stay with auto-enrollment and then complain about the government.

jamesd

Before knowing you want to opt out because you can't transfer out you have to know that you can't transfer out. That information is available if you know where to look but it's not prominent. It's most likely that a person will only discover it when they try to transfer out and are told that they can't.

Andy_L

There is nothing to stop your employer choosing a different (better) provider than NEST