UK pension transfer rules and red flags

Under UK pension transfer rules you have a legal right to ask to move a pension, but your scheme must run scam checks first and some transfers need advice.

The rules come in three layers: a statutory right to transfer, anti-scam checks in the Conditions for Transfers Regulations 2021, and, for some promised-income pensions, a legal requirement to have advice. A scheme can pause or refuse a transfer even when you are sure it is genuine. This page sets out each layer and the warning signs, without suggesting any transfer is right or wrong. Want your own pensions checked against these rules? Ask for a call-back through this page’s short form, and an FCA-authorised adviser then rings you, with no charge.

What are the UK pension transfer rules?

Four rules cover most transfers; which apply depends on the type of pension and where the money is going.

See how long a pension transfer takes, how to transfer a pension and should I merge my pensions.

Do you have a legal right to transfer a pension?

Usually yes, but it is a right to require your scheme to pay your cash equivalent to a scheme that will take it, not to be accepted anywhere you choose. Section 93 of the Pension Schemes Act 1993 applies to a member with accrued rights to a category of benefits who is no longer accruing them and where no crystallisation event has occurred, such as payment of a pension beginning or money being designated for drawdown. For benefits that are not flexible benefits, accrual must have stopped at least one year before normal pension age.

For a money purchase pot, section 94(2) gives a member who meets those conditions the right to take their cash equivalent. For benefits other than money purchase, such as a final salary pension, the right follows a statement of entitlement, and the application must be made within 3 months beginning with its guarantee date and, for benefits that are not flexible benefits, by one year before normal pension age (section 95(1A)); see pension transfer values.

Unfunded public service defined benefit schemes are a special case: the transfer routes section 95(2A) gives their members are into schemes where the benefits are not flexible benefits, and section 95(2B) lets the Treasury prescribe exceptions (see the Teachers’ Pension and the NHS Pension). Money already in drawdown is covered in can I transfer a drawdown pension. Section 95(6ZA), fully in force since 30 November 2021, also says the trustees or managers “may not use the cash equivalent” in the listed ways “unless prescribed conditions are satisfied”.

The First and Second Conditions: what your scheme must decide

Those prescribed conditions are in SI 2021/1237, made on 3 November 2021, in force from 30 November 2021 and extending to England and Wales and Scotland. A transfer can proceed once the paying scheme decides that either the First Condition or the Second Condition is satisfied (regulation 4).

The First Condition is the scheme-to-scheme exemption. Regulation 7(3) lists three kinds of receiving scheme: a public service pension scheme; a Master Trust authorised by the Pensions Regulator and on its list (under the Great Britain or the Northern Ireland Master Trust legislation); and a collective money purchase scheme authorised by the Regulator and listed. The paying scheme must satisfy itself beyond reasonable doubt that the receiving scheme is one of these, and may not ask you for anything beyond the details needed to identify it (regulation 7(5)). The Regulator’s guidance adds that, once it is satisfied, the transfer can go ahead without further checks.

The Second Condition applies to every transfer the First Condition does not cover, and is satisfied only if no red flag is present. How sure the scheme must be depends on whether it asks you for evidence (regulation 6(2) and (3)):

• If it decides without asking, it must conclude on the balance of probabilities that none of the red flags in regulation 8(5) and none of the amber flags in regulation 9(5) is present.
• If it does ask, it must be sure beyond reasonable doubt before finding either red flag in regulation 8(4) (both described below) or that your reply was incomplete. For every other flag it asks whether it has “reason to believe” one is present, meaning a reasonable foundation for that belief on all the evidence and information it has.

Regulation 5 sets two clocks: the scheme must tell you about the conditions within one month of your request, unless it has already made the transfer, and must tell you of a decision that neither condition is met within 7 working days of making it.

Pension transfer red flags, and the scam signs behind them

A red flag means the Second Condition is not met and the right to transfer is lost for that request. Regulation 8(5) names four:

There is a red flag present where the trustees or managers of the transferring scheme decide that— (a) a person without the appropriate regulatory status has carried on a regulated activity for the member in respect of the transfer in breach of section 19 (the general prohibition) or section 20 (authorised persons acting without permission) of the 2000 Act; (b) the member’s request to make the transfer has been made further to unsolicited contact for the purpose of direct marketing of the transfer; (c) the member has been offered an incentive to make the transfer; or (d) the member has been, or considers that they have felt, pressured to make the transfer.

— SI 2021/1237, regulation 8(5), legislation.gov.uk, accessed 22 October 2026

Two more turn on you (regulation 8(4)). One is giving the scheme none of the evidence it asked for: it can treat that as a red flag only after sending a second request at least a month after the first and then waiting at least another month (regulation 6(6)(a)). The other is not showing that you took scams guidance after an amber flag. The definitions narrow the four above:

• Unsolicited contact means contact in person, by telephone call, text message, letter, email or social media message, from a party with whom the member had no existing client relationship or to whom the member states they had not previously notified consent. The Pensions Regulator says it should not capture contact where the member agreed to a trustee or employer passing their details on.
• Incentive is defined to include an offer of free pension reviews, access to savings before normal minimum pension age, a savings advance or cashback. It excludes an incentive offered by the paying scheme’s trustees or managers or by a sponsoring employer of that scheme.
• Pressure may be direct coercion or, the Regulator says, passive, such as a courier waiting for forms to be completed.

The Regulator links these flags to the scam signs the public is warned about: “Many of the same warning signs members should look out for are considered red and amber flags, which could be reason for a transfer being refused.” The FCA’s and the Regulator’s lists of those signs are set out in how pension scams work; to report one, see reporting a pension scam or the FCA’s pension scams page. Whether a particular call or offer you had would count is a question for the adviser who calls once you have sent in the enquiry form here.

Amber flags and the MoneyHelper guidance appointment

An amber flag does not stop a transfer; it makes a guidance session a condition of it. Regulation 9(5) lists five about the receiving scheme itself: it holds high-risk or unregulated investments; its fees are high or not clear; the way its investments are structured is complex, unorthodox or hard to follow; it holds investments wholly or partly outside the UK; or transfer requests to it, or involving the same adviser or firm, have risen sharply or unusually compared with similar transfers over a comparable period. The overseas flag, the Regulator says, is not about something like a global equity fund but about assets or funds in a lax or non-existent regulatory environment. Regulation 9(2) to (4) add three about your evidence: a reply that covers only part of what was asked, evidence that may not be genuine or may not have come from you directly, and evidence that fails to show the employment or residency link.

Regulation 9 then obliges the scheme to require you to take the guidance on pension transfer scams that the Money and Pensions Service provides, and to send it the evidence the service issues once you have done so. The Regulator’s guidance to schemes calls this a pensions safeguarding guidance appointment and says:

• the scheme provides a link or telephone number, and a safeguarding session cannot be booked in any other way, so a Pension Wise or general MoneyHelper appointment will not count;
• “Sessions must be booked and attended by the member, not any person acting on their behalf.”;
• afterwards you receive a unique reference number from MoneyHelper, which you must give the scheme before it proceeds; not supplying that evidence is itself a red flag;
• if you are combining several pensions, wait until all the transfers are requested before booking, to avoid more than one appointment.

The guidance is not a veto. The Regulator tells schemes: “If the member still wishes to proceed with the transfer, you should record the decision they have made and arrange to pay the transfer.” If an amber flag might apply to a transfer you are planning, you can have an FCA-authorised adviser talk it over after a call-back requested on the enquiry form here.

What a scheme can ask for: employment link and overseas residency

The paying scheme must ask for proof of an employment link for an occupational receiving scheme, of residency for an overseas scheme that is not occupational, and of either for an overseas occupational scheme (regulation 10(1)). An employment link needs four things: your employer is a sponsoring employer of the receiving scheme; you have worked for it continuously for at least 3 months; your average gross weekly salary over that period was at or above the lower earnings limit; and contributions were paid to the receiving scheme by or for the employer, or employer and you (regulation 11(1)).

A residency link means you live in the country or territory where the overseas scheme is established. The scheme can require your formal residency documentation plus at least two other written items confirming residence, with certified copies or translations if it asks (regulation 12). Evidence must come from you directly unless a deputy, receiver, attorney or, in Scotland, judicial factor or guardian has power to act (regulation 10). For overseas moves more generally, see what a QROPS is, HMRC’s QROPS rules and moving a UK pension to another country.

Defined benefit pensions: advice above £30,000

The FCA and The Pensions Regulator (TPR) believe it’s in most people’s best interests to keep their DB pension. You can’t reverse a transfer, so you need to make sure you understand the risks so you can make an informed decision.

— FCA consumer page on defined benefit transfers (last updated 24/04/2025), read 22 October 2026

Section 48 of the Pension Schemes Act 2015 requires trustees or managers to check that a member with safeguarded benefits (benefits other than money purchase and cash balance benefits) has had appropriate independent advice before they convert them to flexible benefits, transfer them to acquire flexible benefits under another scheme (including one outside Great Britain), or pay an uncrystallised funds pension lump sum. Under regulation 5(1) of SI 2015/742, in the version substituted from 6 April 2018, no check is needed where the transfer value is £30,000 or less on the valuation date.

The 2021 conditions apply to all the specified ways of using a cash equivalent, so an advised transfer still goes through the flag checks above. See when you need advice to transfer a pension, finding a pension transfer specialist and final salary pensions.

Pension transfer refused, and other questions

What happens if my pension transfer is refused?

If the scheme decides neither condition is met, you lose the right to use the cash equivalent for that request. It can change its decision if it realises it was wrong, or if you later send evidence showing a condition is met and it accepts the delay had good reason (regulation 4), and section 98(3) of the 1993 Act keeps open a fresh right over the same benefits later. The Regulator also tells schemes to explain their internal dispute resolution process to a member who wants to appeal.

Can a scheme block a transfer because it thinks I am better off staying?

Not on that ground, according to the Regulator’s guidance: “An opinion that a transfer is not in the member’s best interest, for example, you believe that a member would be better off staying in their current scheme, is not a relevant factor to stop the transfer.” Separately, it notes a scheme’s rules may still allow a non-statutory transfer where the risk indicators are present.

Do I have to wait a set time before transferring a pension?

The statutory time limits that apply are the ones described above, including the 3-month employment test for a move into a workplace scheme. Overseas schemes have their own periods, covered in HMRC’s QROPS rules. Any waiting period in a scheme’s own rules is something that scheme can confirm.

Does a TUPE transfer count as a warning sign?

Not of itself. The Regulator says a transfer to a scheme linked to a new employer after a corporate or TUPE transaction is not necessarily a cause for concern.

Checking these rules against your own pensions

Whether a transfer qualifies for the First Condition, would raise a flag or needs advice depends on the schemes involved. Submitting this page’s form takes a minute; the FCA-authorised adviser who phones can then cover your own pensions, free.

Sources, all read on 22 October 2026: Part 4ZA of the Pension Schemes Act 1993; the Conditions for Transfers Regulations, SI 2021/1237 (made 3rd November 2021); section 48, 2015 Act; regulation 5 of SI 2015/742; FCA pension scams page (last updated 19/01/2026); FCA on defined benefit transfers (last updated 24/04/2025); TPR on avoiding and reporting scams; TPR, Dealing with transfer requests (last updated 12 January 2023).