Having an Australian pension paid to me now that I live in the UK

Question

I am a UK national. I worked in Australia for nearly five years and paid into an Australian pension scheme with MLC. I di have p[ermanent residency status but I believe that this has now expired due to me not being resident in Australia for several years.

I returned to the UK seven years ago and intend to stay here. I am considering my retirement options. I am currently 57.

What options do I have to:-

1. Have the cash value (or n allowed amount) of my Australian pension paid to me in the UK as alump sum.
2. Take the Australian pension as a normal pension but paid to me in the UK.

Answer 1

MLC will have been writing to you to tell you your options. You can have access to Australian Super from age 55.

If deemed a 'trivial amount' (I do not know threshold for this) it can be paid as lump sum, but you will have to see how HMRC treat the receipt of this - probably as income taxed at highest marginal rate.

If over threshold, can be paid as pension in AUD (but as likely still to be a relatively small size fund, expenses may be disproportionately high) or MAY be able to transfer to UK pension tax shelter.

This last option likely to be by far the most attractive, despite likely non-trivial fees for 'laundering' the money into UK. You could investigate with Hargreaves Lansdown (who give me excellent service for a similar enquiry).