If you leave the UK, your pensions stay yours. MoneyHelper, the guidance service of the Money and Pensions Service, says you can usually still claim all of them, including the State Pension. What changes is how they are taxed, what currency they arrive in, and whether the State Pension keeps rising each year.

Plenty of people face the question. The Office for National Statistics counted about 479,000 people leaving the UK in 2024, and around 79,000 of them were British nationals.

The State Pension keeps paying, but may stop growing

You can claim the UK State Pension from overseas. The catch is the yearly increase. MoneyHelper says you will not get annual increases unless the country you move to appears on a list kept on GOV.UK.

If the money goes into an account abroad, it arrives in local currency, so the amount you see depends on the exchange rate on the day.

You can claim from four months before you reach State Pension age, or at any time after. From abroad, you contact the International Pension Centre or post its claim form. If you already draw the pension and plan to move, you tell the International Pension Centre in England, Scotland or Wales, or the Northern Ireland Pension Centre if you live there.

Work abroad can help rather than hurt. If you pay into another country’s state pension system, MoneyHelper notes those contributions might count towards your UK State Pension.

Private and workplace pots: leave them or move them

A private or workplace pension does not follow you on its own. Dean Butler of Standard Life told MoneyWeek that the pots stay where they are unless you arrange a transfer. You can start drawing them from age 55, rising to 57 from 6 April 2028, even while living overseas.

MoneyHelper sets out two routes.

  • Leave it in the UK. You tell your provider you are moving. The pension is paid in pounds and taxed as UK income. Exchange fees and daily swings in rates make your income harder to predict.
  • Transfer it abroad. The money is then paid in local currency and taxed where you live. MoneyHelper suggests paying for advice in both countries first.

If you keep paying into a UK pension after you leave, you might not get tax relief on those contributions.

What a transfer can cost

A transfer only works cleanly into a Qualifying Recognised Overseas Pension Scheme, or QROPS, a scheme that follows rules close to the UK’s. GOV.UK keeps a list of them.

Butler said the move may be tax-free, or may draw a 25% charge, depending on where you live when you transfer. MoneyWeek adds that you usually pay no tax when the QROPS comes from your employer. You also pay none if you live in the country where the QROPS is based and stay within your allowance.

That allowance is the overseas transfer allowance. Unless you hold protection, it is usually £1,073,100, and anything moved above it normally takes a 25% charge on the excess.

Moving money to a scheme that is not a QROPS is far worse. Butler warned it could bring a 55% tax charge, plus penalties, because HMRC may treat it as an unauthorised payment. Such a scheme may also sit outside regulation, leaving no compensation if it fails.

Tax once you have gone

You must tell HMRC when you move abroad. As a non-resident, you normally pay no UK Income Tax on the State Pension, though the country you live in might tax it. Other UK pensions can still draw UK Income Tax, and sometimes tax where you live too. How much depends on your total earnings in the UK tax year, which runs from 6 April to 5 April.

Watch for the pitch

Both sources flag scams. MoneyHelper lists the usual approaches: adverts, calls, emails and texts offering free pension reviews or products that promise high returns. A deadline to transfer is a warning sign in itself. MoneyWeek cautions that some offshore advisers are salespeople chasing the commission on QROPS transfers.

MoneyHelper’s advice is blunt. If anything feels unclear, do not access or transfer the pension, and check the firm is on the Financial Conduct Authority’s register.