If you change jobs

Changing your job may affect your pension. Especially if you have participated in several pension schemes. How much pension you will receive depends on your personal situation.

If you have had multiple employers

Multiple jobs does not always mean multiple pension schemes. If you are changing jobs, but still working in the same industry (with a mandatory pension scheme), you will keep the same pension scheme.

If you are not continuing to work in the same industry or if you do you not have a mandatory industry-wide pension fund, it is often possible to transfer your pension scheme to your next employer. In that case, too, you will end up with a single scheme. If you have a supplementary pension scheme in addition to the mandatory scheme, remember that moving to another job in the same industry may have consequences for this supplementary pension scheme.

Value transfer

If you also have a pension scheme at your new employer, you will not only change jobs, but probably also your pension provider (fund or insurer). You will then have the option of combining your pension pots into the new pension scheme. That is called value transfer. This is a way of transferring the pension rights you accrued in the past to the new pension entitlements.

However, combining your pension pots may also be disadvantageous. For example, if your new pension scheme offers less favourable conditions than your old pension scheme. The Pension Clarification Service offers you a rapid insight into your old and new pension schemes and whether combining can be interesting. In the information leaflet ‘Combining pension pots’, you can read more about the procedure for combining your pension pots.