Advice sought for student daughter

Moniker

My 34 year old daughter worked for a university for a couple of years and contributed to their pension scheme. She left to start a 3 year PhD in September and is now a full time student. (She has no other pension savings as she has never earned enough before to pay into a pension).


She has received a letter fro her former employer informing her that she can take her contributions (around a measley £50) or transfer to another provider (worth about £2500). She has only three months to make the transfer or will lose the right and may just have her contributions returned. My question is this: to where should she transfer the pension?


She is unlikely to be able to contribute much if anything in the next three years but it would be silly to lose the transfer value. She isn't really keen on managing the investments herself - So a SIPP is not helpful as the costs would outweigh the benefits. Do Stakeholder pensions still exist and is this the answer for her situation? Is there a league table of best buys somewhere she can look at? Thanks - any advice welcome. Moniker

xylophone

Stakeholder pensions still exist.

https://www.cavendishonline.co.uk/pensions/stakeholder-and-personal-pensions/aviva/ might be worth a look.

bigadaj

Is this a defined benefit pension?

Moniker

Yes I think so.

Dazed_and_confused

Doesn't she have the option of just keeping the pension?

Moniker

Apparently not.

Sarastro

Given the difference between the transfer value and refund value of her contributions, it doesn't really matter where she transfers it as long as she does. I suspect she was there for just less than 2 years which is a common qualifying period, hence option to receive refunds and not to stay in the scheme.
I had a similar situation with a Local government scheme. I transferred this to my private pension with Scottish Widows (I'm not recommending them - just saying that's what I did). I thought it was pretty straightforward so guess most of the reputable pension companies will do the same.

Moniker

Yes, we realise that it is much better to transfer than not but don't know where to. She is going to be a full time student for the next three years and won't have much in the way of income apart from her scholarship and there is nothing left over from that to invest anywhere. Can anyone suggestwhat would be the best place to put this money which won't require her to add any more until she is able to?

xylophone

She was in USS?

Are you sure she can't leave it deferred?

https://www.uss.co.uk/members/members-home/leaving-the-scheme

Moniker

xylophone wrote: »

She was in USS?

Are you sure she can't leave it deferred?

https://www.uss.co.uk/members/members-home/leaving-the-scheme

No it isn't USS, it's OSPS(University of Oxford Staff Pension Scheme). She had temp admin work with them and we think this relates to that rather than the part time academic posts she has had over the last couple of years.