Hurdles for NHS workers wishing to transfer UK pension to NZ?   26 Nov 2014

With the UK Treasury’s proposed 31st March 2015 deadline looming, many former public sector employees are already scrambling to get their pension transfer underway. However, there is now another issue of which ex-NHS workers should be aware. In the last few weeks, the administrators of the NHS Scheme have informed Auckland-based GBPensions that they have updated their processes – which means that recent transfer applicants may need to file new paperwork.

GBPensions' director Tony Chamberlain explains more. "If you’ve signed the Letter of Authority for your pension transfer in the last few weeks, then you should contact your adviser and request a new version of form TV27, as a signature is now required to confirm that you have read the administrators’ booklet."

Since there is already a significant backlog for processing transfer requests at the NHS Scheme, GBPensions are actively contacting clients who are affected by this revision and emailing the updated paperwork to them. "We want to make sure our clients don’t lose their place in the queue. Email is the fastest way to get things done – and it saves a huge amount of paper too!" comments Tony.

When the British Government first announced plans for a radical overhaul of UK public sector workers' pensions, 15% of GBPensions' clients were from this sector. This has risen to more than a quarter of their total clientele, and is expected to rise still further as the proposed cut-off date gets ever closer. In the meantime, Tony Chamberlain offers this sober reminder. "A transfer process can easily take up to 6 months to complete, especially since we often wait around 12 weeks to receive paperwork back from the UK providers. The Christmas and New Year shutdown will add further delays too. We therefore urge anyone who thinks they could be affected by these plans to seek independent advice about their UK to NZ pension transfer options as soon as possible."

ENDS

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