If you are currently living in Australia there is no obligation to transfer your pension.

However, for many people there are clear advantages in transferring your pension scheme. A number of issues including taxation, currency fluctuations, local legislation and constantly changing pension rules mean that it can be beneficial to transfer your pension out of the UK into a QROPS.

The Royal Mail Pension Plan is a ‘defined benefit’ (DB) pension scheme with around 90,000 members. It is a scheme that closed to new members in April 2008 - due to employer affordability - with any new employees, from April 2008 onwards, joining the Royal Mail defined contribution (DC) pension plan.

With no “guaranteed” pension income, in retirement, for DC scheme members, this type of scheme is less expensive (than a DB scheme) for an employer to run.

The Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) is mainly a defined benefit (or final salary scheme) and one of the largest private pension schemes in the UK. The USS is the main scheme for academic staff in UK universities and other higher education and research institutions. There are over 350 employers, across the country, that actively participate in it.

The USS is also one of the more generous UK schemes to its’ members with employers contributing 18% of salary and members 8% of salary. 

For many people, the key financial questions when moving abroad are: Can I leave my pension in the UK, what is a QROPS, and should I transfer my pension overseas?

If you are planning to live and work abroad, you need to think about how you are going to fund your retirement, and this means understanding QROPS schemes and the QROPS rules.