Are you leaving thousands behind in the UK? Time to check your pension - Kilkenny Live

Over the past decade, I’ve met clients from Kilkenny, Carlow, Waterford and across the South-East who were completely unaware they had a pension sitting in the UK—often dating back decades.

Many of them had worked there for a number of years in their 20s or30s, paid into workplace schemes, and returned home with only memories and a payslip trail. But that trail can be worth a lot—anything from €28,000 to over €400,000, in fact.

One of the most rewarding parts of my job is helping people unlock these forgotten or neglected funds, and bring them home. With proper advice and planning, it’s entirely possible to transfer your UK workplace pension into an Irish structure and, in doing so, gain significant advantages in convenience, tax efficiency, and inheritance planning.
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But let’s be clear—pensions and pension transfers are complicated. It’s not a one-size-fits-all solution, and it doesn’t suit every pension type, particularly where a Defined Benefit (DB) scheme is involved. That’s why we always recommend a complimentary review before making any decisions. It gives policy holders clarity and confidence in what’s right for them.

Here’s what many don’t realise: if you’ve worked in the UK and paid National Insurance, chances are you’ve built up some pension entitlements—perhaps even eligibility for the UK State Pension. Yet too few people take the next step and assess what that means for their financial future.

At Castle View, we’ve worked with clients who didn’t think their few years in Manchester or Birmingham would add up to anything, only to discover substantial entitlements. Transferring these pensions to a Qualifying Recognised Overseas Pension Scheme (QROPS), which we facilitate, can be life-changing. We’ve helped people consolidate their pensions into Irish PRSAs or buyout bonds, making access and planning far simpler.

Some of the main benefits include:
No tax trigger on transfer if done under QROPS rules;
Exclusion from the Standard Fund Threshold (SFT), which caps Irish pension savings;
Smoother inheritance planning, particularly for those with complex family structures;
Avoiding UK rules that can limit flexibility on access or transfer.
This isn’t a process to enter lightly. You’ll need to consider your current tax residency, the 10-year rule for tax purposes, and the Overseas Transfer Charge, among other factors. Thankfully, we now have a structure in place for clients who haven’t yet met the 10-year residency requirement, opening up this route to more people than ever.

The real impact of expert guidance often comes to light through lived experience.
As one client, Ray Warrick, put it: “My wife and I met Gerry informally at a social event in Kilkenny prior to Covid, and through our discussions realised we may just have found the right person to help and advise us on upcoming pension realisations.

“The reality was that we had found the ultimate highly skilled and experienced financial advice professional who could not only advise on collating our Irish pension requirements but beyond that into our UK pension assets.”

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What’s more, if you’ve worked and paid into the UK system, you might still be eligible to purchase up to six additional years towards your UK State Pension. That window has narrowed in recent months, but the opportunity is still there—and it can add up to thousands in annual income during retirement.

My message to anyone in Kilkenny who’s worked across the Irish Sea is this: don’t wait. You could be sitting on a pot of money you’ve long forgotten about—or didn’t even know existed. And with the right advice, you can take full control of it, bring it home, and make it work for your future.

If you’d like a complimentary initial review or want to understand what your UK pension could be worth, get in touch. The only regret I ever hear from clients is that they didn’t do this sooner.

Gerry Farrell is a financial advisor at Castle View Financial Services and is a regular voice on KCLR where he answers listener questions on personal finance. To get in touch, email: Gerry@cvfs.ie