Getting your pension after leaving

shinytop

I mistakenly thought I could leave work and have my DC pension transferred and paid to me in a quick and seamless process. How wrong I was. When I actually leave work (and not before), the pension administrator will start the process of issuing a leaver pack (because I'm leaving obviously) and a transfer out pack (because I want to transfer to another provider). This (issuing the packs to me) will take '6-8 weeks'. Once they receive my instructions to transfer they will then start the transfer process. The transfer process will take 'several weeks' (and from experience with my AVC, 'several' is 8 and counting). I'll then have to get the money out of the new provider.

It doesn't seem a complicated process and I accept there are forms to be filled in and transactions to be done. But why does it take so long? Fortunately I can do without the cash for a while for but some 4 months with no income could cause problems.

I'd email to ask but they take 2 weeks to answer emails. :rotfl:

Albermarle

The obvious question is why do you want to transfer the pension? Can you not just take benefits from the one you have with the company you are leaving ( assuming you are over 55 ). Normally a DC pension just comes with you when you leave a company ?

wjr4

Which provider is it with?

xylophone

If you are certain that you want to transfer , can you not begin the transfer process now by contacting your chosen provider and asking for the transfer to be arranged?

lisyloo

I recently did a SIPP transfer (SIPP to SIPP) - I had 2 because my ex-employer insisted on using HL.
Anyway my IFA had to do a report. This took about a month because noone did anything when he was on holiday/sick.
Then there were some forms. we Tried to do it quickly by email but one document (double sided) got printed in the wrong order so it had to be done a second time.

HL then take about 6 working says for settlement.
Then the manual cash payment took over another week as apparently they had to manually verify payment details (and none of this could be done in parallel).

Once the cash transfer took place, the units were bought the next day and then the trades settled the week after.

One took several months altogether and as you can see a combination of events.
I have complained to HL but expect something to say they met SLAs.

tacpot12

I don't know why it takes so long, but it seems to be a trait of the pension industry that nothing moves very fast. In Banking, a current account switch has to be done in 7days, and a Faster Payment has to be made within 2 hours, but in the Pensions industry, 8 weeks is fast, 12 is normal.

p00hsticks

tacpot12 wrote: »

a Faster Payment has to be made within 2 hours,

Whilst I see your point, the bottom line timescale for Faster Payments is actually by the end of the next business day, although as you say they usually arrive within two hours.

I'm sure if the Pension industry invested the same sort of money into an automated scheme that the banks did on putting automated faster payments in place we'd get a quicker service - but ultimately the customer ends up paying for it and you can't really compare the number of people wanting a faster payment with the number of people wishing to transfer a pension at any one time.

shinytop

The obvious question is why do you want to transfer the pension? Can you not just take benefits from the one you have with the company you are leaving ( assuming you are over 55 ). Normally a DC pension just comes with you when you leave a company ?

I'm leaving/retiring and the existing pension doesn't do drawdown

Which provider is it with?

XPS (used to be Xafinity

If you are certain that you want to transfer , can you not begin the transfer process now by contacting your chosen provider and asking for the transfer to be arranged?

I will try this but the current provider won't do anything until they receive my response to their leavers/transfer pack - which I won't get for 6-8 weeks after leaving. I'm doing an AVC transfer just now with the same providers and it's taking an age. I think if I left the main scheme now it might help but I'm still in it and still contributing.

Albermarle

I don't know why it takes so long, but it seems to be a trait of the pension industry that nothing moves very fast

I have done one full transfer and two part transfers in the last few months ( all in cash)
Two ( from Scottish Widows ) took about 10 days each . One from Aviva was < 48 hours .
So it shows what is possible if they want to do it.

wjr4

shinytop wrote: »

XPS (used to be Xafinity

That's because it is an administration company and not an insurance company. They are known for taking a while to reply.