Around £127bn has been transferred out of UK funded occupational pension schemes since 2015, with £36.9bn-worth of transfers out in 2017 alone, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

The government body’s Financial Survey of Pension Schemes found that transfers in to occupational schemes bounced back the following year, rising from £2.2bn in 2017 to £9.6bn in 2018, driven by a sharp rise on transfers into defined contribution (DC) schemes, which made up £3.8bn, or 40 per cent, of the total amount.

In 2019, transfers into DC schemes had climbed to £5.1bn, or 57 per cent of the total, leaving ONS to state that the increase in transfers may be associated with “the expansion of multi-employer master trusts in response to the auto-enrolment programme”.

Membership of DC occupational pension schemes stood at 22.4 million at the end of 2019, compared with 18.3 million for funded defined benefit and hybrid (DBH) pension schemes. Canada Life technical director, Andrew Tully, said the number of people who had transferred out of UK occupational schemes since 2015 “may sound staggering” but added that it “only represents a tiny fraction of the assets currently being held within pension schemes, so we can assume that most people appear to be staying put”.

He noted that “the majority of savers will be better off by staying in their DB scheme” but also conceded that “some individuals may stand to benefit from a transfer if they are in ill health or have expensive debt”. In the final quarter of 2019, almost £10bn was transferred out of defined benefit (DB) pensions, up from just over £5bn in the previous quarter.

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