UK Pension Regulator Reports Increase in Defined Benefit Pension Transfers

14 May, 2018

The UK Pension Regulator (TPR) has confirmed, in response to a freedom of information request, that over 72,000 defined benefit pension transfers occurred from 1 April 2017 – 31 March 2018 with the total value of these transfers being approximately £14.3bn. While not all of these transfer may have been into defined contribution schemes like UK personal pensions, it shows the scale of defined benefit transfers that have been occurring since the pension freedoms were introduced in the UK in April 2015.

The TPR noted that not all pension schemes report exactly how many transfers they had carried out. Therefore, taking into account non-responses, the TPR estimates that the actual number of transfers could be more around 100,000 in the period. This is a 25% rise on its estimate of 80,000 between 1 April 2016 and 31 March 2017.

If you have any questions regarding your UK defined benefit pension, contact Florin Pensions LLC for an initial consultation.