Should Student Take Refund of Under 2 Years Pension Contributions or set up SIPP?

Universidad

Marcon said:

They are DB schemes and he'd need to have at least two years' membership of (each) scheme to qualify for deferred benefits. Had he transferred the longer period of service into the scheme he joined for 6 months, then he'd have met that bar.

Your advice would in most cases be correct - but on a practical note the chances of having completed a transfer in within a six month window look pretty slim from where I'm standing. I didn't get the membership details of the pension at my new employer for three of those months!

The one point I'd pick you up on thinking about it is that you need two years qualifying service in either of those schemes. A transfer in of any size DC pot would vest your pension, but a transfer in of a DB pension would (in the public sector DB schemes I'm familiar with!) only have given the actual service, so this person could still have been under two years qualifying service. It would literally come down to the days, given we've been told 18 months and "about 6".