You may be able to transfer a pension into the LGPS, but you generally have 12 months from joining to ask, and your pension fund decides whether to accept.

Three things decide whether a transfer into the Local Government Pension Scheme can happen: what you are moving, when you joined, and what the fund will agree to. Whether it is worth doing depends on the pension you would give up, and this page sets out what to weigh rather than an answer. An FCA-authorised adviser can phone to set an old pension beside the LGPS with you; there is no charge, and the request goes in via this page's form.

This page describes England and Wales unless it says otherwise, using the scheme's member website (read on 20 October 2026) and regulation 100 of the Local Government Pension Scheme Regulations 2013 (SI 2013/2356).

The first deadline: 12 months from joining

The member website says you "will generally have 12 months from joining the LGPS to opt to transfer your previous pension". The regulations are more precise. Regulation 100(6) requires notice in writing to the administering authority and the Scheme employer within 12 months beginning with the date you first became an active member in an employment, "or such longer period as the Scheme employer and administering authority may allow".

Three points follow:

  • The right to ask belongs to an active member, so the request comes after you have joined, not before.
  • Time can be extended, but only if both your employer and your pension fund agree. The scheme calls this a discretion and suggests asking each for its late-transfer policy.
  • Even a request made in time does not guarantee a transfer: the same regulation says the administering authority "may accept the transfer value", and a fund "may refuse" some transfers (see the next section).

Ask the fund about its process on joining, and see how to transfer a pension for getting a transfer value. Joining also means paying in; the rates are in LGPS contribution rates.

What can come in, and what cannot

The list on the member website covers a previous employer's pension scheme, a self-employed pension plan, a pension "buy-out" policy, a personal pension plan, a stakeholder pension scheme and an Additional Voluntary Contributions (AVC) arrangement.

The arrangement "must normally be another UK registered pension scheme", though an approved overseas scheme may be possible. In the regulations the qualifying rights are those under a registered pension scheme, which include preserved benefits, or under a European pensions institution.

Two limits apply:

  • A pension credit cannot come in. That is a share of an ex-spouse's or ex-civil partner's pension awarded by a court under a Pension Sharing Order. Regulation 100(2) excludes rights attributable to a pension credit. How pensions are treated on divorce is in what happens to your pension on divorce.
  • The fund can say no. For a scheme other than the LGPS, the pension fund "may refuse to accept" the transfer.

Moving between LGPS funds follows its own rules, covered in combining LGPS pensions from different jobs.

How a transfer value turns into extra pension

The old scheme offers a transfer value, and that sum "would buy an amount of extra pension in the LGPS". The extra pension is added to your pension account in the scheme year in which your fund receives the transfer payment. This page does not estimate how much a given sum buys.

The scheme states that the request "is not binding until you have seen an estimate of the amount of extra pension the transfer value would buy and confirmed that you want the transfer to go ahead". So the sequence is a request, an estimate, then your confirmation.

For the weighing, the scheme lists what to compare: the estimated extra pension, the age that pension is payable from (your Normal Pension Age), and the other benefits of the LGPS, such as early retirement before that age, ill health benefits and survivor benefits. It says a transfer "may not always be the best decision for you" and suggests an independent financial adviser. Set that against what you would leave behind in the old scheme. For a final salary or other defined benefit pension, what a final salary pension is explains what is at stake, and the scheme's benefits are weighed in whether the LGPS is any good.

Once the estimate arrives, an FCA-authorised adviser could lay it beside the pension you would leave, and that call can be requested in the form on this page. Your LGPS fund and Pension Wise are other places to start.

Club transfers from other public service schemes

If your earlier pension was in another public service scheme, the fund "may accept a transfer under preferential rules known as the Club transfer rules". The member website says those schemes include the ones for civil servants, the armed forces, teachers, health service workers, fire and rescue workers, the police and the judiciary, and the LGPS in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. The special terms apply if you have not had a break in public service scheme membership of more than five years, and "Club transfer rules will not apply if you request a transfer more than a year after you join the LGPS".

The difference from a private transfer is how the credit is set. In a Club transfer the extra pension added "will be broadly equal to the amount of pension you had built up in your previous scheme", adjusted for differences between the two schemes, and it is increased by the previous scheme's revaluation rate while you stay an active LGPS member. Regulation 100(8) requires the fund to follow the Club Memorandum for these transfers.

Pension built up in another public scheme between 1 April 2015 and 31 March 2022 may be protected by the McCloud remedy, which the member website says works very differently in the LGPS, so read the transfer information carefully. Moving out of a public scheme is a separate question (see moving an NHS pension), and civil service transfers in have their own page.

Scotland has its own member site

Regulation 100 is marked as extending to England and Wales; the LGPS in Scotland has its own member website. Its transferring-in page, read on 20 October 2026, also says you will generally have 12 months from joining, that a pension credit cannot come in, that the arrangement must normally be another UK registered pension scheme, and that Club rules will not apply to a request made more than a year after joining. One difference: it says you have a year to opt to transfer "unless your employer allows you longer", naming the employer alone as the one who can extend it. A Scottish fund can confirm how it applies. Northern Ireland has its own scheme, not covered here.

Offers to move a pension that should make you pause

Among the signs of a pension scam the FCA lists a guaranteed better return and high-pressure sales tactics. Its advice on choosing help is short: "If you want to find an adviser, make sure they’re authorised by us." Its pension scams page (updated 19/01/2026) explains how to report one, and pension transfer rules and red flags covers the general checks.

Questions about moving a pension into the LGPS

Can I transfer a private pension into the LGPS?

The scheme lists personal and stakeholder pensions among the arrangements that may be transferred in, normally from a UK registered scheme. The fund may refuse, and the request is generally due within 12 months of joining.

Can I transfer in after the 12 months?

In England and Wales, only if your employer and the pension fund both allow a longer period (in Scotland, the member site names the employer alone). The scheme describes this as a discretion and suggests asking each what its policy is.

Can I bring AVCs or free-standing AVCs into the LGPS?

The member website says AVCs paid to a different scheme, or free-standing AVCs, can be transferred in to buy extra LGPS pension, with 12 months from joining to elect unless your employer and pension fund allow longer. Moving a pension between employers more generally is covered in moving a pension to a new employer.

Your next step

Ask your LGPS fund what its process and its policy on late requests are, and get the old scheme's transfer value in writing. Asking an FCA-authorised adviser firm to ring costs nothing, and you can set it up in the form on this page.

Sources