Brit moving to Canada need pension advice

Taffyscot

You can receive your British pension in Canada but as someone said it is frozen from the time you take it and does not go up with the index that it does in Britain. This is true for all the "colonies" Canada, South Africa, NZ and Australia. The stupid thing is that if you live in the EU or the States then your pension will go up comparable to the British index. I lived in Canada for years and there were organizations there fighting to get it changed. Canada has Registered Retirement Saving Plans RRSP. You would be far better off sinking any money that you have into one of these every month as they are tax exempt on any money made on them and you get a tax refund at the end of the tax year for putting your money into them. If you set it so that the money comes off your pay into one of the banks then you will not miss it as it will be like a deduction. This by far makes better use of your money. Sigh wish I had taken my own advice but 4 kids later and not a very high paying job!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

dunstonh

Berrserker has two threads runnning which at the start of the other one says he/she is going to Canada for at least two years and suggests a return. This one says emigratting and the other one now says unlikely to return. The scenarios have been changing as the day has moved on.

In the scenario of "unlikely to return", then paying into a UK pension seems pointless. Getting advice from a Canadian adviser when living in Canada seems a much better idea.

Cook_County

In the scenario of returing to the UK a Canadian RRSP would cause UK tax problems on returning to the UK.

berserker

Thanks Taffy thats useful.
Dunston i'm trying to get a feel for the various outcomes that lie ahead. I truely hope things go to plan and I stay out in canada. But one outcome is I cant get my work permit renewed after 2 years and have to come back to the uk.

So it might make sense for me to pay into a UK stakeholder pension for 2 years until i know where i stand at which point switching to a RRSP is probably a better investment