Transfer of pension rights out of the FPS
If you leave the FPS with 3 or more months’ service but not being eligible for immediate payment of a pension because you are not old enough, nor retiring on grounds of ill health, as an alternative to a deferred pension you could request that your pension rights should be transferred to some other pension arrangement. A transfer value, a sum representing the capital value of your pension rights, would be assessed in accordance with guidance provided by the Government Actuary and offered to the managers of your new pension scheme. The transfer would take place if you so instruct.
Transfer of pension rights within the FPS
If you leave your employment with your current fire and rescue authority and transfer to further employment as a firefighter with another authority, provided there is no break in service between employments, you would remain a member of the FPS. Although your pension rights will normally transfer with you, payments of transfer value are not exchanged between English fire and rescue authorities. The authority you leave would simply send a statement of your pension entitlement to your new authority.
However, if you leave to take up employment as a firefighter in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland, a transfer payment would be paid because different funding arrangements apply. Provided there is no break in service between employments you would be subject to the FPS rules of the relevant country.