pension scheme doubt

You may be able to transfer it to a pension scheme in your country. Otherwise, you can wait until you retire and take benefits from it - which probably won't be much.

When you retire.

Nothing much

Nothing much

You will not get the full value of the scheme back if you transfer or cash it in. If you want a pension consider one that is not tied to an employer and one that does not charge you for changing or stopping your contributions.

Every few years the pensions company write to you to ensure you are still eligible to contribute to a UK scheme. If you stop paying UK tax, you will probably have to stop contributing to your pensions scheme. Make sure the scheme doesn't penalise you for this. My scheme is making the charge they would have made if I was making contributions, but they don't actually take any more contributions after they learnt I was working abroad.

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If it's stakeholder or equivalent then you *will* get the full value of the fund. However, you are unlikely to be able to cash it in until at least age

2. >If you want a pension consider one that is not tied to an employer

Stakeholders don't.

Sounds like you ought to have a stakeholder or equivalent. Modern schemes don't generally make such charges.

Rob Graham

You've misunderstood what pension contributions are for!

They are to give pension fund managers a current income.

You old cynic.

Depends on your country to some extent.

How can he cash it in ?

I feel I should argue against that but I can't find a very good argument!

Good heavens! If you can't at least claim not to be "old", then there's not a lot more to be said. All is lost.

Better start contributing to one of those funeral expenses savings plans before it's too late. Have you made a will?

I dont look that old at least!

No will and I'm too cynical to contribute to savings plans!

ROFLOL - was just reading an article in the Mail On Sunday where the Writer was stating that he started his pension in 1993 and only this month is his pension 'pot' now actually equal to all the money he has put in. He also went on to ask why he is being taxed more to pay the pensions of state workers who will end up with a better pension than him.

Actually, not ROFLOL!

John.

You've misunderstood what pension contributions are for!

They are to give pension fund managers a current income.

That is entirely possible, given the front loaded charges and depending on what the fund has been invested in...

"John-Smith" wrote

Yes, but isn't that "all the money he has put in *plus* the tax relief"?? So really, there's already a 30%-ish return on money paid-in?

I am no PP specialist but think that would depend on whether the contribution was made out of gross pay or out of net pay.

I have a SIPP and for every £1000 I send them, the actual amount that goes into the dealing account is increased by the tax reclaimed.

You can hardly refer to tax relief as a "return".

I fear that the situation he's describing may actually be worse than it sounds, namely that the fund, which has after all been fed by gross contributions ("money put in plus tax relief"), is still only just equal to the sum total of his *net* contributions.

In other words, it's not the case (as with ordinary investments which do not enjoy tax relief) that the investment returns to date just balance the charges to date, which after a decade would be bad enough, but that charges to date plus investment losses (or minus investment returns) just balance the tax relief on contributions. After a decade, that's phenomenally bad.

"John-Smith" wrote

Either way around, 1,000 in the pension means a loss of only around three-quarters of this in disposable income (varying between 75% & 78% over the years). [Whether 1,000 was paid gross *or* 750 was paid net plus 250 tax relief added]

Why are you worried about your State pension and how much you have paid into it when, if you were a former Soviet citizen, you could now come here and get a BIGGER pension for not paying any NI contributions than some poor UK sod who has worked and paid NI all their life!!!

What a stupid country this is! Why do we put up with it!!!

John.