UK. Pension savings warning: Savers could be hit hard by freeze on transfers
Pension savings have been prevented from transfers as a result of a number of trustees utilising their emergency powers to prevent movement of money. This means those who wish to ditch their defined benefit pension schemes could have a hard time doing so.
The decision has been made by a number of companies facing financial hardship during the coronavirus crisis.
Under new rules, put in place by the Pensions Regulator, trustees are able to suspend transfers for up to three months.
This can only be done until the end of June, if it is in the “best interests” of their members. The move was taken after fears savers could be given an inaccurate figure as a final salary pension because of market turbulence due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
The former pensions minister Baroness Altmann had called for a temporary ban on transfers, out of concern valuations would be unreliable.
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