On the other hand, an inactive pension is an account that you’ve stopped contributing to, most commonly after you’ve left the company and are no longer Auto-Enrolled into their workplace pension scheme. Customers with inactive pensions are known as deferred members of the scheme.
Transferring an active pension
To transfer your active pension to PensionBee, there are two key differences:
- Personal pensions - if you’re a member of a personal pension (which isn’t linked to your workplace) you’ll need to stop contributing before transferring. Once contributions have stopped, you can proceed with the transfer. Be aware that pensions receiving payments in the past three months may still be flagged as active during the transfer process.
- Workplace pensions - it’s usually easiest to wait until you leave your employer before transferring a workplace pension. These pensions often have specific rules, and transferring while still employed may stop your employer’s contributions. Check with your employer or pension provider for more details. It may be possible to make a partial transfer from your old pension.
Do I need to transfer all of my pensions?
You don’t have to transfer all of your pensions to PensionBee to get started. You can transfer just one of your inactive pensions. If you have an active pension that you’re still contributing to, you can link it to your online account, called your BeeHive. Once the contributions stop, you can then transfer it to your PensionBee pension.
You can add as many pensions as you want to your account - even after you’ve signed up. If you sign up to PensionBee as a self-employed customer, you don’t need to transfer any existing pensions to get started. Instead, you can open a new pension with us and start contributing as much or as little as you like.
What are my options if I have an active workplace pension?
If your only pension is one your employer’s currently contributing to, you have a few choices:
- Ask your employer to change your pension provider - you can ask your employer if they can stop contributing to the active pension and instead pay into your new pension provider.
- Request a partial transfer from your pension providers - PensionBee can look into whether you can transfer part of your funds.
- Wait until your next job change - many people decide to wait until they change jobs before transferring an active pension to avoid losing any benefits from their current employer’s scheme.
No matter your situation, you can still add non-PensionBee pensions to your Retirement Planner in your BeeHive. This will help you see the potential income from all your retirement savings in one place.
What is a partial transfer?
A partial transfer means you can move only part of your pension funds to another provider. Whether this option is available to you will depend on the rules of the pension providers involved, so it’s a good idea to check with them about what you can do and how long it might take.
Risk warning
As always with investments, your capital is at risk. The value of your investment can go down as well as up, and you may get back less than you invest. This information should not be regarded as financial advice.
Last edited: 07-02-2025
