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Transferring your pension to the UK

There usually are various kinds of pensions. One of the many frequent is the workplace pension, wherever your company saves (or contributes) into a pension check.

Likewise, you may have an individual or private pension check that you've established up by yourself. A person can save directly into several different pensions as long as a person stays within their own total annual and long term limits.

To encourage you to conserve on a pension, the particular government also gives them money through pension tax comfort. The amount associated with tax relief may depend upon your conditions, and, naturally, taxes rules may alter in the upcoming.

You should be saving for your pension as early as possible (preferably as soon as you start working!), so we thought we would expand and share some more pension tips.

Whether you're moving back to the UK after spending time abroad or you've been working overseas, you might be able to move the pension you saved back with you! Not all pensions will have the capability to be transferred; it depends mainly on the overseas pension provider and the type of pension you had. You may also need to meet certain conditions. For example, most UK pension schemes will only accept a pension transfer from a ROPS (Recognised Overseas Pension Scheme)

Step One:

Familiarise yourself with your pension scheme; their rules vary from country to country, which could complicate your transfer. After that, you'll want to do the same with the pension scheme you want to transfer your retirement savings into. This is where having a ROPS comes in handy; you should only need to contact your UK pension provider and confirm the ROPS and follow your UK pension provider's transfer process.

Taxation and the exact process will vary depending on your precise pension scheme, so you might want to get in touch with an expert pension adviser if you're unsure.

Step Two:

If your UK pensions provider isn't willing to accept the transfer, then there are other options, so don't lose hope just yet!

You can arrange to have your payments made to a bank account in the previous country you worked in; then, you can have it transferred into your UK account. This is slightly more work than directly transferring the pension, but there are ways to make this process as easy as possible!

Make sure to choose an account that won't overcharge you for your transfer or currency conversion. We offer accounts that are 9x cheaper than the average high-street bank, and we have competitive conversion rates so that you're not losing money by transferring your pension.

Transferring your pension with Kixy: 

  1. Open a secure Kixy account, giving you access to local account details for several different currencies. This includes SWIFT/BIC and IBAN codes. 

  2. Use your relevant account details to accept your overseas pension in the local currency. Doing so will save you money on conversion fees.

  3. You can convert your pension into GBP using our competitive currency exchange rates whenever you need to or want to. (TIP: check when the rates are particularly low and convert, and save even more money.)

Depending on how much you've put aside, you could save a small fortune!

How to claim your pension?

Since November 2018, the State Pension ages were aligned for men and women at 65. Though, there are many planned increases in the upcoming years, as the State Pension age is set to rise even more for both men and women to 66, 67 or 68 and to depend on the individual's age.

Some sort of pension is some sort of tax-efficient way involving saving money for retirement.

How many years of National Insurance (NI) contributions do I need to pay to get the State Pension?

You should have a National Insurance (NI) contributions record for about 35 years to receive the full State Pension.

Now, if you have less than ten years of NI contributions, you probably won't receive any State Pension.

If the number of years you have been contributing for is between 10 and 35 years, then the amount you receive will be comparable to the number of years you have been contributing.

You could pay more to make up for any shortfall if there is any in your NI contribution record.

If you are over 55, you can then apply for a State Pension statement, which will then tell you how much you are likely to collect.

Does the State Pension increase each year?

The basic State Pension increases each year by at least 2.5%. it could be more if the rate of inflation or the average earnings growth is more than 2.5%. If you retire abroad, this may not apply – check whether you'll still receive increases each year.

Do you pay tax on the State Pension?

For this current tax year, 2021/2022, if your total annual income is over £12,570 then you will need to pay income tax on your State Pension. Though, you no longer need to pay National Insurance (NI) contributions once you reach the State Pension age.

How can I increase my State Pension?

You may have a few gaps in your National Insurance (NI) contributions, like perhaps because you were self-employed or working abroad, or even were unemployed but not claiming benefits, you then can pay to make up any gaps.

You can get a summary of your NI history and any gaps you might have here..

What happens to your personal or work pension when you die?

The money paid out from the personal or work pensions when you die depends on the type of pension scheme you took and belong to, and whether you’ve already started receiving your pension benefits. 

A defined and indept contribution pension may pay the value of your pension money to your dependants as a lump sum.

A benefit (or final salary) pension may pay a pension to your spouse or partner.It various and in some cases your children, until they leave full time education.

If you die while paying into a work pension, there could also be an element of life cover, that may very will be payable to your dependants as a lump sum.

To encourage you to conserve into the pension, the particular government also gives them money through pension tax comfort. The amount associated with tax relief may depend upon your conditions, and, naturally, taxes rules may alter in the upcoming.

Remember, as together with any investment, the significance of your pension and any income may fall as properly as rising and is not certain.

Information in this publication is provided for general information only, and it does not purport to include every aspect of the topics with which it deals. You should not take it as advice. Prior to taking, or refraining from taking, any action based on the content of this publication, you should seek professional or specialist advice. Kixy LTD or its affiliates are not rendering legal, tax or other advice through the content of this publication. A similar outcome is not guaranteed. The content in the publication does not represent, warrant or guarantee, either expressly or impliedly, that it is current, accurate, complete, or up-to-date.

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Kixy LTD is registered with the Financial Conduct Authority under the Payment Services Regulations 2017 for the provision of payment services (reference number: 814005). Kixy LTD is registered with the Financial Conduct Authority as an EMD Agent of PayrNet Limited, an Electronic Money Institution authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority (reference number: 900594). Kixy LTD's registered address: 40 Gracechurch Street, London, England, EC3V 0BT. Kixy is not a bank, the Kixy account is an e-money account. For Canadian customers, Kixy Services Inc. is registered with the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC) as a Money Service Business (MSB) with registration number M21855906.