Kirsty&Al

 

You can't transfer your state pension or SERPS (now known as the Second State Pension - SSP).

For the state pension the amount you get at the end depends on how many years you've contributed not on how much has been paid in. SERPS does have some loose connection to how much you paid in (although I think they are trying to break this in the SSP).

To get a full state pension you have to have contributed for 44 years (or slightly less if you are a woman of a certain age or you have got a reduction due to Home Responsibilities Protection). You get nothing if you have contributed less than 25% of the required years (so 11 years for most people) and you get a proportion for anything between 25% and 100% (so 22 years would give most people a half pension). NOTE: There is a bill in the offing that MAY reduce the required years to 30 but the details at the moment are not clear at the moment and are subject to change.

If you are in Aus then the pension payment becomes frozen when it starts paying out (rather than when you arrive). This means that once you start taking the pension you will not get any more increases.

If you want to continue contributing after you have left then you can do this through class 2 or class 3 voluntary contributions. Class 2 costs about one third of Class 3 but is only available to people who work. Personally I think class 2 contributions are worth considering but class 3 contributions are not worth it (you'd be better off putting the money into your own super).

So,
- get a pensions check (as mentioned above).
- if you have paid 30 years, wait to see what the new laws bring in.
- I (personally) wouldn't bother paying class 3.
- When you reach pension age you will get the same pension you would have got in the UK (assuming the same contributions) but it wont increase in value from year to year.

Cheers
Al