Previous pension

[DuncanSWardle]

Confused needs advice

Worked for well known high street retailer for 8 years and left late 2010

Since then have contributed to a rather decent local goverment scheme

What happens regards the previous pension I had ?
Can it be cashed out ? or do I just leave it there and get it when I retire ? (its not a huge amount I imagine, prob no more than 4 grand)

[farmroad38]

You can't take it out until you reach retirement age (or an early retirement age if the policy allows).

You could either leave it where it is, or transfer it to another pension. Your current scheme may allow you to transfer in previous pensions, but as it's a government one I'd doubt it. Best to talk to an IFA to see how the previous scheme is performing, what the transfer value is and where might be a good place to put it.

[rbullivant]

Keep it in there, when you retire you might find its a fairly decent amount. My Mum paid literally a few quid in for a couple of years in the 70's, got £1500 lump sum and £400 a year, she worked for raleigh

[farmroad38]

Keep it in there, when you retire you might find its a fairly decent amount. My Mum paid literally a few quid in for a couple of years in the 70's, got £1500 lump sum and £400 a year, she worked for raleigh

That very much depends on the scheme. Some of them do well, others perform appallingly. At the very least, Duncan should find out what scheme it is, so that he can see whether he can track what it's doing.

[cjanderson]

i have usually left mine with the old provider.

and then once i have a new personal pension with new company, asked those advisors to do a comparison of transferring old versus keeping it in old place. They usually don't charge for this (as they are being paid by new company to set me up a pension), as long as you don't have ADVICE, but just getting the projections is easy.

then you decide if its worth moving or not. it usually is as newer scehemes TEND to have lower charges than some old schemes. And of course, its MUCH simpler to have one pension in one place, rather than a collection. so thats what I have done each time with my pensions, kept combining into one big pot.