Time taken to transfer a pension rises to 14 days
The average time it takes to transfer pension has increased to 14 calendar days compared to more than 10 days in 2020
The time it takes savers to transfer a pension to another provider has increased by nearly a third in recent years.
The average lead time for pension transfer has risen to 14 calendar days, compared to more than ten days in 2020. In some cases, such as the provider XPS Administration, the average transfer time is almost two months, or 57 days. Others, including The People’s Pension, LV and Mercer, take an average of 40, 36 and 33 days respectively.
Despite modern technology, these transfers take more than a month, meaning the money can be transferred in seconds – although regulations require transfers to be checked to ensure they are not fraudulent. Those offering the fastest transfer times are Forester Life, NFU Mutual, and MetLife, all of which take six days to sort out.
Along the tourist route: The time it takes savers to transfer a pension to another provider has risen by almost a third
The figures – compiled by technology company Origo for its Pension Transfer Index – look at the years from January 2020 through December 2022.
Times are getting worse, despite slow transfer times being recognized as a major problem eight years ago by the city’s regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority.
Part of the challenge is that companies aren’t ordered to reduce switching times by the FCA, so have little incentive to improve and won’t be fined. Pension provider PensionBee offers a transition period of ten working days and sees this as a problem that needs to be addressed.
“We need to move away from self-regulation and ensure stricter deadlines are adhered to,” said Becky O’Connor, a director at PensionBee. ‘We advocate a ten-day pension transfer guarantee.’