Transferring workplace pension

sortofwinning

Hi could anyone advise me on whether or not I can transfer a workplace pension into my private stakeholder pension if I have no other job to go to?


I've just had a third mental breakdown in the space of a year after being bullied at work for the past year and a half. I was on the sick but have just resigned from my job today. I don't have another job to go to and may be on the sick for a while. I have some ideas for self employment but due to the complexity of them, plus the fact that my brain is currently scrambled, I don't think that I'll be able to put them into place any time soon.


So could anyone tell me what happens to my workplace pension in my current situation? There won't be a huge amount in it because I was a low earner anyway, but I still obviously have to claim the money somehow.


TIA

Linton

Is the pension Defined Benefit (eg Final Salary) or Defined Contribution where you have a personal pot of investments?

dunstonh

Workplace pension is a term that covers any type of pension offered in the workplace. It is not a term that covers one type of scheme. So, it could be a defined benefit, COMP or GPPP amongst others. Each has its own rules of things to be aware of.

Stakeholder pensions are a niche option nowadays and largely obsolete for most people. So, it may be that transferring both into a new scheme is the best option. Or leaving both where they are (for now) could be.

sortofwinning

Thank you Linton and Dunstonh. I don't even know which type of pension my work pension is. Because I am such a low earner, I wasn't counting too much on the workplace pension and didn't factor it in to my retirement calculations. I focussed instead on my private stakeholder pension.


I am a bit clueless. I think that from what Linton said, it is a defined contributions pension. Probably I need to call Legal and General and they should be able to advise.