To consolidate pensions, you ask the provider you want to keep (the receiving scheme) to request a transfer from each of your other schemes. The money moves directly between registered UK pension schemes, so there is no tax on a transfer between registered schemes done properly. Before you start, check whether each old pot carries anything valuable you would lose. If a pot includes safeguarded benefits, such as a final salary pension, worth more than £30,000, the scheme must check that you have taken regulated independent advice before it will transfer them into a scheme offering flexible (defined contribution) benefits. Gov.uk explains how the process works. This guide covers the order to do things in, what to check and when not to consolidate.
Step 1: find every pension you have
Many people with several pensions built them up through auto-enrolment, with one pot for each employer. Start by listing every employer and personal pension you have paid into. For each scheme, write down the provider, your policy or member number and the current value. If you have lost track of an old workplace scheme, the government's Pension Tracing Service can find the provider's current contact details. You then contact the scheme yourself to confirm what you hold.
Ask each provider for three things. You need the current transfer value, the annual charges, and written confirmation of any special features. Those features are listed in Step 2.
Step 2: check what you could lose
Gov.uk warns that when you transfer you may:
- Pay a fee. Some older policies charge an exit fee, so get the figure in writing;
- Lose a protected pension age. Some schemes give a right to take benefits earlier than the normal minimum age. That age is 55 now and rises to 57 from 6 April 2028, and an individual transfer can end the right;
- Lose tax-free cash above 25%. Some older schemes allow a larger tax-free lump sum, and that right may not survive a transfer;
- Lose fixed or enhanced protection. These are older protections from the lifetime allowance regime. Since 2023/24, protection applied for before 15 March 2023 is no longer lost on a transfer, but confirm the position with your provider;
- Have to make payments to the new scheme. Check the receiving scheme's terms before you commit.
Your providers can tell you whether any of these apply. Also ask whether the old pot has a guaranteed annuity rate or other guarantee. If a pot has a guarantee or protection, leaving it where it is often makes sense even if the charges are higher.
Defined benefit pensions and the £30,000 advice rule
Section 48 of the Pension Schemes Act 2015 says that, before transferring safeguarded benefits to acquire flexible benefits in another scheme (or converting them to flexible benefits), the trustees must check that the member has received appropriate independent advice. Safeguarded benefits are benefits other than money purchase or cash balance benefits, which in practice mainly means defined benefit (final salary or career average) pensions. The regulations make an exception when the transfer value of those benefits is £30,000 or less. Above that figure, the advice must come from an FCA-authorised adviser with permission to advise on pension transfers. You usually pay for it yourself, and the adviser may still recommend that you stay put.
For most people a defined benefit pension is the pot least suited to consolidation. It pays a guaranteed income that you cannot easily replace from a defined contribution pot.
Step 3: choose where to consolidate and start the transfer
Pick the receiving scheme on charges, investment choice and the way it lets you take money out later. Your current workplace scheme may accept transfers in, which keeps everything in a scheme your employer is still paying into. A personal pension or SIPP is the alternative. You can only transfer to another registered UK pension scheme, or use the money to buy a deferred annuity. A transfer anywhere else is an unauthorised payment and is taxed.
The receiving provider usually handles the paperwork. Before paying out, the transferring scheme must apply the Conditions for Transfers Regulations 2021. A transfer to a public service scheme, an authorised master trust or an authorised collective money purchase scheme meets the first condition once the scheme confirms the receiving scheme's status. Any other transfer must meet the second condition, which means no red flag can be present. If the scheme finds an amber flag, such as high-risk or unregulated investments, unclear or high fees, or overseas investments in the receiving scheme, you must take pension scams guidance from the Money and Pensions Service (MoneyHelper) first.
Worked example
Priya, 44, has four pensions:
- Pot A. A £22,000 auto-enrolment pot from her current employer, which is still receiving contributions;
- Pot B. A £9,500 pot from a job she left in 2019;
- Pot C. A £700 pot from a six-month job, with no contributions since;
- Pot D. A final salary scheme from her first employer, with a transfer value of £85,000.
Moving pots B and C into pot A is straightforward if neither has an exit fee or guarantee. She ends up with one pot of about £32,200 at her current scheme's charges. Pot D is different. Its transfer value is above £30,000, so the scheme will not transfer it until she shows she has taken regulated advice, and giving up a guaranteed income is rarely in her interest. A sensible plan is to consolidate B and C, leave D alone, and update her expression of wish forms on every scheme she keeps.
Small pots: the new automatic consolidation
The Pension Schemes Act 2026 received Royal Assent on 29 April 2026. Chapter 2 of Part 2 gives the government power to move small dormant pots held by auto-enrolment schemes into authorised consolidator schemes. A pot is "small" if it is worth £1,000 or less. It is "dormant" if no contributions have been paid in for a prescribed period of at least 12 months and you have not chosen how it is invested. The detailed rules depend on regulations that have not yet been made, so you cannot rely on this happening by a particular date. If you want control over where small pots end up, consolidate them yourself.
When not to consolidate
- The old pot has a guarantee. This covers defined benefit income, guaranteed annuity rates, protected tax-free cash and protected pension ages;
- The exit fee wipes out the saving. Compare the fee with the difference in annual charges over the years until you retire;
- The receiving scheme is unfamiliar. Cold calls, offers of "free pension reviews" and promises of high returns are warning signs of a scam.
Sources: GOV.UK: Transferring your pension; GOV.UK: Find pension contact details; Pension Schemes Act 2015, s48; SI 2015/742, reg 5 (£30,000 exception); Occupational and Personal Pension Schemes (Conditions for Transfers) Regulations 2021; Pension Schemes Act 2026, s22; Finance Act 2004, s279 (normal minimum pension age); Finance (No. 2) Act 2023, s23 (existing protections). Related guides: UK pension age, pension tax relief and inheritance tax on pensions.
If you are bringing pensions together as part of wider retirement or tax planning, our private client tax team can look at how the pots fit with your other income and your estate. We do not give regulated pension transfer advice, but we can work alongside your adviser.