Left employer after 8 months - what to do with Pension?

richdeniro

I recently left my job which I worked at for 8 months which had a 'Fidelity Purchase Pension Plan'.

Over the 8 months I paid £1,369 in deductions from my payslips and a further £684 in AVC's.

I received a letter from Fidelity saying that as I was a member for less than 24 months I have two options:

1. Transfer to another suitable pension arrangement.
2. Forfeiting my pension account.

My refund statement only says £684 which is what I paid in AVC's and the £1,369 I paid in would be refunding through my companies payroll department.

The transfer statement says the value of company contributions on top of my AVC payments is £4,191 giving me a total pension account value of £4,890.

I was just looking for some advice as to what to do - I'm assuming I can transfer the full £4.8k to a new pension unless I've read it wrong but my new workplace has not been enrolled into the workplace pensions scheme yet as it is a startup and so guess I would need to set up my own personal pension scheme - would that be a SIPP?

I know £4.8k is not a huge amount but I would be grateful for any advice.

Thanks so much in advance.

LHW99

Certainly better to transfer than lose the money.
A SIPP is a possibility if you are happy managing it yourself. It could be a parking place pending being able to transfer into the new company scheme (depending on what it is and if they allow it). If you are thinking of that, you would want to look at charges to transfer out of whatever SIPP you choose, and maybe keep it as cash in the meantime (depending on how long you have to wait).
Or you could look at a personal pension.
Either one could also give you options to transfer money from the new employers' scheme into your personal pension from time to time or if you changed job again.

xylophone

You might use a simple stakeholder - http://www.cavendishonline.co.uk/pensions/stakeholder-and-personal-pensions/friends-provident/