Firefighter Pension Transfers: In, Out and Between FRAs

Three different things called a ‘transfer’

Firefighters use the word transfer for very different situations. The first is a career move between fire and rescue authorities: you leave one employer and join another, and your pension record follows you within the same scheme. The second is a transfer in: bringing a pension from a different scheme, such as a previous employer’s scheme or personal pension, into your firefighter pension. The third is a transfer out: taking the value of your firefighter benefits as a cash equivalent transfer value and moving it to another pension arrangement.

Each has different rules, deadlines and risks. The first is administrative and usually costs nothing. The second can be attractive if you are joining from another public service scheme, and needs care about time limits. The third is rarely in a firefighter’s interest, because a guaranteed, inflation-linked defined benefit pension with dependants’ cover is hard to replace, and the rules restrict where it can go.

The information below comes from the official member website and the LGA’s factsheets. For a move between fire services see also moving between fire services and firefighter pay progression for pay context.

Moving between fire and rescue authorities in England

If you leave one English fire and rescue authority and begin employment as a firefighter with another within five years, you can remain a member of FPS 2015. The official website says your former administrator gives you a certificate summarising your benefits, and your new authority combines these into a pension account for your new employment. This is done automatically if there is no break between employments. If there is a break, you should give the certificate to your new authority.

If more than five years pass before you rejoin, you keep a deferred pension account with the previous authority and start another with the new one. If you held an added pension account, it may be possible to move it to the new employment. Special arrangements apply if you hold more than one job with either or both authorities, in which case you may have to choose where your benefits are transferred.

For a fuller explanation of the wider process see the guide to transferring between fire services, and check that your pay point and duty system are agreed in writing, using the pay calculator to compare packages.

Moving between England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland

The official website is clear: if you move between fire and rescue authorities in different parts of the UK, your pension will not transfer automatically, and you need to ask for the transfer to be started. An English administrator’s short member guide (LPPA, written in 2018) adds that the same principles as for other schemes apply, so a transfer value is worked out for the old scheme’s benefits and then converted into benefits in the new one. Your administrator can provide the form.

Northern Ireland’s administrator, HSC Pension Service, gives a hard limit: transfer applications are only accepted within 12 months of the date you joined the scheme and before your normal pension age, and delay can reduce the transfer’s value. It also says that a transfer between firefighter schemes must be requested from the receiving scheme. Similar time limits and factors may apply elsewhere, so ask early. Also note that accrual rates differ (1/59.7 England, 1/61.4 Wales, 1/61.6 Scotland, 1/64.8 Northern Ireland), so a transfer changes how the same value converts into pension.

Because the mechanism and the remedy interact, an incoming member with 2015 to 2022 service should also ask how remedy rights are protected in the transfer. Public service ‘club’ transfer factors, set by the Government Actuary’s Department, are updated periodically, as LGA’s August 2026 bulletin notes for club and non-club transfers in.

Transferring in from another pension

The official website says FPS 2015 can accept transfers in from another occupational pension scheme registered with HM Revenue and Customs, a qualifying recognised overseas pension scheme, or a personal pension scheme. You must apply to transfer, and your administrator will tell you what information they need, what restrictions and time limits apply, and what benefits you could get. You should compare this with what your previous scheme offers, and decide within the time limits.

Transfers in can take time. In England, that same 2018 administrator guide warns that certain restrictions and time limits may apply depending on the type of transfer, so it may be beneficial to investigate this at the earliest opportunity, ideally when you join and are asked about previous pensions. In Northern Ireland the window is 12 months from joining.

For remedy members, transferred-in service in the remedy period is one of the categories that needs extra processing for ABS-RSS statements, as SPPA and English administrators have both reported, so expect additional questions and possibly delay. For a personalised view, the pension report or pension calculator can help compare the transferred pension credit with your existing benefits.

Transferring out: process and limits

The official process has six steps: speak to your administrator at least one year before you want to retire; complete the forms; the administrator works out a transfer value, the total cash equivalent value of your benefits; the receiving provider quotes what that value would buy; the administrator checks the new scheme meets conditions, such as being a UK HMRC-registered scheme or a qualifying recognised overseas pension scheme; and, once approved, you are told when the transfer will take place.

Two restrictions matter. Firefighter benefits cannot be transferred to other sections of the firefighters’ scheme, for example 1992 into 2015. And transfers to certain schemes that allow members to access their benefits flexibly are not allowed. The official pages recommend independent financial advice and warn of scams, and note that a transfer is not always an easy decision.

If you are thinking about it, compare the guaranteed lifetime pension, lump sum option, death grant, survivor’s pension, children’s pensions and inflation increases you would surrender. Private arrangements can be worth more or less, but the risks move to you. See also leaving the fire service for options when you leave.

1. Speak to your administrator at least one year before you plan to retire.
2. Ask for a written transfer value and how long it is guaranteed.
3. Ask what the receiving scheme would provide, and get it in writing.
4. Get independent regulated advice on what you would give up.
5. Check the receiving scheme against the administrator’s conditions.

Cash equivalent values: what the number means

A transfer value is the lump sum the scheme says is the value of your pension rights, worked out by actuarial factors from the Government Actuary’s Department. It depends on your age, your pension and the assumptions in force at the time, so it can change from one quote to the next. The LGA and GAD publish periodic updates to factors, including a review of the SCAPE discount rate that fed into factor changes announced in 2026.

It is tempting to see the number as ‘your pot’. It is not. It is the actuarial value of a promise, and it would need investment growth and careful drawdown to replace it. As a rough illustration only, an annual pension of £20,000 with survivor cover, indexation and a lump sum option is a very different thing from a pot of the same size as the transfer value. Use the free lump sum calculator to see the value of a lump sum option, and compare income over your expected retirement, not only the headline number.

For divorce, the cash equivalent is also the figure used by the court, and remedy can change it; see pension and divorce.

Special cases: retained service, added pension and remedy

Some transfers are more complicated because the benefits involved are not simple. Retained firefighters may hold special-member service bought under the Matthews options exercises, and the official pages say you can buy service for earlier retained periods within the exercise deadline, which runs to 31 March 2027. An incoming transfer may need to be reconciled with those options; see on-call firefighter pension.

Added pension you have bought in FPS 2015 sits in a separate added pension account; the official website says that when you move authority within five years it may be possible to transfer the entries to your new employment. If you hold more than one firefighter job, each job may have its own account and you may have to choose where benefits go.

Members with 2015 to 2022 service should treat any transfer as a moment to check their remedy position, because statements for cases involving transfers in have been among those needing extra processing. Ask that your remediable service statement reflects the transfer, and read the remediable service statement guide and the McCloud remedy guide.

Scams, advice and dashboards

The official member website warns that scammers try to steal pensions and to be wary of offers that seem too good to be true. Red flags include cold calls about a free pension review, promises of high returns, pressure to move quickly, unregulated overseas investments and offers to release cash before 55. Genuine administrators do not charge fees for providing remedy information, and you do not need a claims company.

Financial advice is a good idea before any transfer out. Check any adviser on the FCA register, agree fees in advance, and ask how the advice covers the loss of guarantees. The official ‘financial advice’ pages point to independent organisations that can help.

Pension dashboards, intended to let you view all pensions in one place, have been delayed: a 2026 local pension board report says a large administrator could not connect by the October 2025 deadline and that dashboards were unlikely before late 2026. Meanwhile, the government’s Pension Tracing Service can help find lost pensions to transfer.