Claiming French pension contributions

atw_uss

Looking for advice on what I could/should do with regard to French pension contributions (Assurance Retraite and Ircantec).

I worked at a French University for a couple of years in the 1990s and paid pension contributions - I wasn't on a big salary. I'd not really given it much thought until recently but have all the paperwork and have managed to view my records on info-retraite.

My question is whether I can/should transfer this into a UK pension or should I just wait until retirement age and claim a few Euros then - if I am eligible to, of course!

All advice gratefully received!

elouise01582

I did investigate this a little a few months ago for someone who had a french pension valued at around 5000 Euros. They were planning to take it at the relevant retirement age and the only thing I could not find out was how it would be taxed.  That is the question. To transfer into a uk pension I think you may need advice from a French and UK Adviser. It would be niche and I suspect expensive.

QrizB

I know nothign specific but if it's a relatively small sum I'd be inclined to leave it where it is. As elouise says, with the current state of UK-EU financial relations it could be difficult and expensive to move it.

Others have previously posted that there is a tax treaty between UK and Fr that prevents double taxation of pensions. I would post a link to the thread (I rmember it quite clearly) but I can't make the forum search do anything useful!

elouise01582

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5962532/claiming-french-pension-from-the-uk

atw_uss

Thank you for the helpful replies - it isn’t likely to be a large amount, so I guess it would be best just to claim it when I get to the right age (62, I think). Good to know it should be possible though.