Can I Transfer My Pension While Still Working?

Transferring a pension is not tied to retiring or leaving your job. You can move a pension while working full-time, while still paying into a workplace scheme, and long before you reach the age you can access the money (currently 55, rising to 57 from April 2028). In fact, the years before retirement are exactly when many people tidy up old, forgotten pots, which is why “can I do this while I’m still working?” is one of the most common questions we see.

Which pensions you can move while employed

The easy cases are old, ‘paid-up’ pensions, schemes from former employers or personal pensions you no longer contribute to. These transfer just as they would at any other time, following the steps in our guide on how to transfer a pension. Combining several of these into one plan is a popular reason to transfer while still working, and the pension transfers hub covers the pros and cons of consolidation. Because you are not accessing any money, simply moving where it is held, a transfer of this kind has no bearing on your income tax or your salary, and your employer need not even be told.

• 1

  Old workplace pensions

  Deferred pots from previous jobs can usually be transferred at any time while you work, subject to the normal checks and any scheme-specific conditions.

• 2

  Personal pensions and SIPPs

  Private plans you have stopped paying into move freely; those you still fund can normally transfer too.

• 3

  Your current workplace scheme

  Often transferable, but moving out can mean losing valuable ongoing employer contributions, think twice.

• 4

  Defined benefit pensions

  Transferable only while ‘deferred’ or before retirement; over £30,000 you must take regulated advice first.

• 5

  Pensions already in payment

  Once an annuity or scheme pension is being paid, it generally cannot be transferred.

The catch worth watching

The most important trap is transferring the scheme your current employer is paying into. If you move that pot out, you may forfeit future employer contributions, effectively part of your salary. Auto-enrolment means your employer must keep a workplace pension available, but there is little point transferring away money your employer is topping up. Keep the live scheme and transfer the old ones instead.

Why people transfer before they retire

For many working savers, the years running up to retirement are the natural time to get their pensions in order, while there is still time to benefit from lower charges and while the paperwork is easier to face than it will be later. Tracing an old pot from a job you left twenty years ago, checking whether it carries any valuable guarantees, and deciding whether to fold it into a single plan is exactly the kind of housekeeping best done with a decade or two still on the clock. Doing it now also makes your retirement income far simpler to plan, because you can see your total pension wealth in one place rather than across half-remembered schemes.

None of this requires a career break. You can keep earning, keep contributing to your current workplace scheme, and transfer old pensions in the background. The one habit worth keeping is to treat each pot on its own merits: an expensive, poorly invested legacy plan is a strong candidate to move, while a scheme carrying a guaranteed annuity rate or a defined benefit promise deserves a much harder look, and above £30,000 of safeguarded benefits, regulated advice.

It is also sensible to check the small print of each old scheme before you move it. A handful of policies carry protected features that vanish on transfer, an unusually low pension age, enhanced tax-free cash, or a guaranteed rate, and once given up they cannot be recovered. A quick call to each provider, or a review by an adviser, flushes these out before you commit. Done in that order, tidying up your pensions while you are still working is one of the most useful pieces of retirement housekeeping there is.

For defined benefit pensions the usual rules apply regardless of employment: you can transfer only while the pension is deferred or before you take it, and above £30,000 regulated advice is mandatory, as our pension transfer advice pillar explains. This is information, not personal advice, and investments can fall as well as rise. If you are juggling several old pensions alongside a current job, Vetted Wealth can match you, free of charge, with an independently vetted adviser to help you decide what to keep and what to move.

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