(the necessary period of qualifying service is 5 years if you left on or before 5 April 1988, and 2 years if you leave on or after 6 April 1988.); or
-transferring your benefits from the
PCSPS to your new scheme to increase your new scheme benefits; or
-transferring your benefits to an
insurance policy (also known as a Section 32 policy), which will provide the money to buy a pension at the retiring age, if you have the necessary qualifying service; or
-taking a refund of contributions or a
short service payment if you left before 5 April 1988, depending on the rules of the PCSPS, if you do not have the necessary qualifying service for a preserved pension.
Social Security legislation requires the PCSPS to offer a transfer payment on behalf of anyone changing jobs after 1 January 1986 who qualifies for a preserved pension. A transfer is carried out by the payment of a transfer value to your new pension provider which extinguishes your pension rights in the PCSPS. You can ask the PCSPS to make a transfer payment at any time after you leave up to, normally, a year before the retiring age. However, if you wish to transfer your benefits into your new scheme, you should note that it may impose a limit on the time that you have to ask it to accept a transfer payment. It is advisable, therefore, to check with your new scheme when you join it whether there is such a limit.
Social Security legislation also requires that transfer payments are calculated on a reasonable and consistent basis. They must amount to at least the equivalent in cash of the value of the benefits that you have accrued.
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In addition to the requirements of legislation, the PCSPS offers a transfer payment to staff whose service is too hort to provide a preserved pension. Certain conditions and time limits apply and they are explained later in the booklet. You need also to check with your new scheme as to any time limits it may have.
Opting out of the PCSPS
The Social Security legislation gives civil servants the right to opt out of the PCSPS. If you do opt out, your pensionable service will end and you will have a right to a transfer payment in respect of the cash equivalent of some or all of your pension benefits, see page 21. The transfer value may be paid to a personal pension scheme, or, if you have the necessary qualifying service, to an insurance policy. If you subsequently leave the civil service altogether, a transfer payment could be made in respect of any benefits preserved in the PCSPS.
What will the transfer payment buy?
What the transfer payment will buy will depend, in part, on the form of the receiving scheme. Broadly there are 2 types of pension scheme, "final salary" and "money purchase". The majority— including the PCSPS and most public service schemes-are final salary schemes: these provide a pension based on final salary and number of years' service. The transfer payment to such a scheme generally buys an additional period of reckonable service but some schemes may offer other forms of benefit. If you transfer to a final salary scheme, you may find that the transfer payment buys less reckonable service than you had in the PCSPS. The considerations involved are
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