NHS pension - shall I transfer to an ISA

KSG79

I am after some advice please? After 20 years service in the NHS I was made redundant in February 2025. For now I have froze my NHS pension to take out another time. However friends are telling me to transfer it to an ISA. Would anyone suggest this or leave it in the NHS until I wish to draw it out? Any advice is welcome. 

Dazed_and_C0nfused

KSG79 said:

I am after some advice please? After 20 years service in the NHS I was made redundant in February 2025. For now I have froze my NHS pension to take out another time. However friends are telling me to transfer it to an ISA. Would anyone suggest this or leave it in the NHS until I wish to draw it out? Any advice is welcome. 

Unfortunately I don't think your friends know what they are talking about.

The NHS pension is a defined benefit pension, not a pot of money that you can move about.

It is also highly unlikely to be frozen.  If you check you should find it revalues each year with an annual inflation related increase.  Often the CPI rate from each September is used for deferred public sector schemes.

Your pension is more like deferred salary, there is no pot of money for you to draw out. You will have built up a pension (or possibly two or even three different pensions due to scheme changes) that can be taken when you reach the schemes normal pension age.  There will be options to take them earlier as well if you wish.  

There are very rarely "penalties" for taking a defined benefit pension early but the amount will be reduced to reflect the fact you are asking for it to be for a longer period.

Maybe worth you reading up a little on the NHS pension schemes and if you like the idea of an ISA you can always find that from your savings.  But not by transferring your NHS pension.

BrilliantButScary

The following link will provide you with lots of information:

https://mynhspension.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/

I have service in all 3 of the NHS schemes, 1995, 2008 and 2015. 

I don't know how old you are, but I can't stress enough about the importance of understanding, what you will be getting from the NHS pension scheme/schemes in order to facilitate retirement planning.