Moving jobs? Here’s what happens to your pension

Moving jobs can be stressful and exciting in equal measure. There’s a lot to consider. New roles, new responsibilities, new commuting routes. Then there’s the new colleagues, new contact details, new schedules. It’s no wonder that people don’t think too hard about their pensions when they’re starting a new job.

There’s too much going on to wonder what happens to the pension from your old job, and combining or transferring pensions sounds complicated.

But it’s not as difficult as you might think. Here’s what happens to your pension when you get a new job.

Nothing happens unless you make it happen.

When you move jobs, your workplace pension just sits there. You won’t be contributing, your former employer definitely won’t be contributing. So the pot just sits there, going up and down with the market and interest rates, until the time comes that you can finally withdraw it.

If you’ve not been with an employer long, it could translate to as little as a few pounds a month.

So you can leave it, and never think about it again. Or, you could make that pension work for you by bringing it with you, combining it with another pension, and making contributions.

Here’s how to do just that.

Before you transfer a pension or combine a pension, you need to find that pension. That’s not as difficult as you might expect.

You just ask your former employer for the details - the pension provider, policy number and the current pension transfer value.

If they don’t have it, or you’re not on speaking terms, or you’re trying to trace an old pension from an employer you can’t contact, you can still find it.

When you transfer a pension to mynestegg, we guide you through the process of finding your old pensions. Or, you can use the Government’s Pension Tracing Service. 

Make a note of the provider’s name, and your policy number.

Before we move on, let’s just clear up what we mean by your pension transfer value.

You can request your pension transfer value from the provider with your old workplace pension. 

One who makes it easy to transfer your pension, and who’ll show you what it could be worth. It’s worth shopping around, but because you’re here on the mynestegg website, the best place to start is with our pension transfer calculator. 

Just share your age, the pension transfer value you found in step two, and your email address. 

We’ll show you the projected pension transfer value, and show how much it’ll be worth to you in retirement even if you don’t make any new contributions.

Now you have a private pension set up, go back through your employment history and add in any other previous workplace pensions. If you’ve had a long, storied career, you could have three or four just sitting around, waiting for you to make good use of them.

The best way to do that is to keep contributing to your pension. Whatever you can spare. The more you contribute, the best chance you have of growing your retirement nest egg and achieving your savings goals.

And if you move on from your current job, remember to transfer that pot in too. All the time you’re working at this new job, you and your employer will be automatically contributing to your workplace pension, so it’ll grow month on month, ready for you to consolidate everything for a much happier retirement.

Remember - none of this will happen if you don’t take action. So get the ball rolling by looking at our pension transfer calculator to see what your old workplace pensions could be worth. 

We’re always looking to make saving simpler. To learn more about how to set goals, save for the future, or choose the right pension or ISA, visit the mynestegg Knowledge Hub.