Consolidate small pension pots?

jasperskates

Hi everyone,

I'm in the civil service and currently pay into the alpha defined benefit scheme. I have also set up Additional Voluntary Contributions (£400 per month) into a Legal and General defined contribution scheme. I am 32, so still have 30+ years before retirement.

I have a couple of small pension pots from previous jobs where I worked for a short time:

- Standard Life Flexible Retirement Plan: ~£740 (total value)

- Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS): ~£5,250 (one-off lump sum)

This includes ~£4k (retirement income builder) and ~£1,250 (career revalued benefits)

- SAUL CARE Plan (Career Average Revalued Earnings): <£700 - currently trying to reset my account details to check exact amount, but I know it will be small.

My questions are:

• Are £740 and £5,250 the values of the respective Standard Life and USS schemes if I transferred them into my Legal and General pension pot?
• Would consolidating be a good idea?

I'd prefer to consolidate for the simplicity and help keep track of my savings, but I know I should compare rates/charges/benefits. I've read this guide (https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/should-I-combine-my-pensions/) but I find it really difficult to understand how to check this with my specific schemes. 

As they are small amounts, I'm hoping the financial difference would be fairly minimal and worth a potential pay-off for convenience. I also saw the MSE advice about keeping small points to avoid triggering the Money Purchase Annual Allowance (MPAA). I'm not sure what this means or whether this would be a concern in my case.

Is anyone able to help me contextualise the MSE consolidation advice in my circumstances? Thank you so much!

Emmia

How long have you been a CS and a member of Alpha? You could potentially transfer that pot into Alpha.

I think that like Alpha, the USS is a defined benefit scheme, which makes transferring to a defined contribution pension scheme - which your standard life one will be, tricky...

jasperskates

Hi @Emmia - thanks for reading my post! Unfortunately not, I tried to do this during my first 12 months from joining the alpha scheme but both USS and alpha were so slow in processing things at each stage that the 12 months passed and I missed the cut-off. 

Emmia

jasperskates said:

Hi Emmia - thanks for reading my post! Unfortunately not, I tried to do this during my first 12 months from joining the alpha scheme but both USS and alpha were so slow in processing things at each stage that the 12 months passed and I missed the cut-off. 

I think then you'll struggle to get the USS one moved over to let you consolidate.