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Civil Service Pension - transfer in

Stormontgirl
Posts: 5 Forumite

Wonder if anyone can help? I have recently changed jobs and signed up to the Civil Service pension alpha scheme. I have a M&S and Lloyds TSB pensions with transfer values of £3K and £17K respectively. Considering transferring them in to my new scheme but unsure I fully understand the implications of this. I presumed it would financially sensible but would appreciate any advice? Many thanks!
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Comments
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You can ask CSP for quotes before making your final decision.
A major advantage of going ahead with these transfers is that if you, for any reason, fail to complete at least 2 years service, then you would still have a CSP deferred pension instead of the faff of having to transfer your benefits to another scheme.0 -
Stormontgirl said:Wonder if anyone can help? I have recently changed jobs and signed up to the Civil Service pension alpha scheme. I have a M&S and Lloyds TSB pensions with transfer values of £3K and £17K respectively. Considering transferring them in to my new scheme but unsure I fully understand the implications of this. I presumed it would financially sensible but would appreciate any advice? Many thanks!
Pros of transfer - all pots in one place, alpha requires no management, you get more Defined Benefit pension (you can always build up a Defined Contribution pot, but are unlikely to get Defined Benefit outside of public sector), you qualify for preservation immediately rather than having to wait 2 years
Cons of transfer - it will be a pain and take a long time and probably take quite a bit of chasing of various parties unless you are fortunate, loss of flexibility of Defined Contribution
So probably a sensible thing to do, subject to any unusual personal circumstances, but expect it to be a frustrating process.0 -
If you are likely to be in the civil service scheme for many years with a reasonable salary level, then you will build up a good guaranteed pension income anyway. The addition of £20K is probably not going to make a huge difference but would help.
In the case where you think you should have built up a good CS pension by retirement age, then having a separate DC pension ( like the M&S and Lloyds TSB ones) can give some more flexibility if you wanted to retire early for example. However this would only really work if you contributed to it regularly, so it became a more significant sum. So two lots of pension contributions - one in your CS job and one privately.
Just a thought, maybe it is not affordable.0 -
If I were you I would keep the £20k separate, as it's not large enough to make a difference in the long run but you may appreciate a separate DC pot which can be accessed more flexibly at a later date. How old are you? Will you be a higher-rate taxpayer in the CS?0
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