If the Trustee agrees, you may transfer the value of benefits from another pension arrangement into the Scheme i.e. from a previous employer’s pension scheme or from a personal pension.
In exchange for a cash payment from the provider of the transferring scheme, you will receive a specified amount of years and days of Pensionable Service in the Scheme. The additional years and days will be reflected in any calculation of your final benefits. When your Scheme benefits come into payment the additional Pensionable Service secured by the transfer payment will be reflected in the final calculation of your benefits.
You will need to provide contact details for the administrator of your other pension arrangements to the pension scheme administrator who will contact the pension providers and request a current Transfer Value of your benefits held in their arrangement.
On receipt of the transfer information, the pension scheme administrators will provide you with a quote of the extra years and days of Pensionable Service that can be provided for you by the Scheme in return for the transfer value currently available.
There is no defined period for how long it takes to complete a transfer of benefits as it depends on information being provided by other scheme administrators and sometimes by the DWP. The pension scheme administrator will keep you informed if there are any excessive delays. No formal transfer of monies will take place until the pension scheme administrator have received written authority from yourself that you wish to proceed with the transfer.
You should be aware that the additional years and days of Pensionable Service offered in the Scheme may not be the same as your pensionable service in your previous scheme, because the benefits from the two schemes are unlikely to be exactly the same or the same value. It is extremely important that you take independent financial advice if you are considering transferring any pension benefits from one arrangement to another.
If you are interested in this option, please contact the pension scheme administrator.