Superannuation and your UK pensions: what Brits in Sydney need to know

Start work in Sydney and your boss starts filling a retirement pot for you straight away. What to do with the pensions you left back home in Blighty is a slower, more careful question.

The short version

• Your employer must pay the super guarantee of 12% of your ordinary earnings into a super fund, in 2025–26 and 2026–27 [3].
• Super is locked away until your preservation age (60 for anyone born after 30 June 1964) unless a narrow exception applies. Temporary residents who leave can claim it back as a DASP, taxed at up to 65% [5].
• Your UK workplace and personal pensions can usually stay in the UK and pay you in Australia. For most people that's the safest option.
• Moving a UK pension into super is possible only to a recognised overseas scheme, may trigger UK and Australian tax, and needs regulated financial advice [1][2][4]. We never recommend a transfer.
• Pension cold calls are illegal in the UK and probably a scam [6].

Pound conversions in this guide use the Bank of England spot rate of 5 November 2026 (£1 = AUD 1.9363), rounded.

How super works when you arrive

Superannuation is Australia's workplace pension, but it's compulsory and it's paid on top of your salary. Think auto-enrolment back home, only with no opting out and a much bigger employer contribution.

A few things to sort in your first weeks:

1. Get a tax file number before you start work, so your fund doesn't tax contributions at a higher rate. The FCDO's Living in Australia guide flags the tax file number as one of the first jobs [7].
2. Choose a fund, or accept your stapled fund. If you don't pick one, your employer checks whether you already have a "stapled" fund. As a brand-new arrival you won't, so they'll use their default fund. You can usually choose your own instead.
3. Log into myGov and link the ATO to see every fund you hold. It's the easiest way to stop little pots getting lost when you change jobs.
4. Check the insurance. Most funds include default life and income protection cover, paid out of your balance. Useful for some, a waste for others.

The super guarantee is paid on earnings up to a cap. From 1 July 2026 the maximum contribution base is AUD 270,830 a year (about £139,900) [3]. Earn more than that and your employer doesn't have to pay super on the extra.

Contribution caps

Australia taxes contributions lightly inside the fund, so it caps how much you can put in each year [4].

Under-75s can often bring forward up to three years of the non-concessional cap at once, so up to AUD 390,000 (about £201,400) in 2026–27, depending on their total super balance [4]. That matters if a UK pension ever comes into play, because most of a transfer counts towards this cap.

Temporary residents: the DASP

If you're on a temporary visa, such as the Skills in Demand visa or a working holiday visa, your super isn't stuck here forever. Once you've left Australia and your visa has ended, you can claim it as a departing Australia superannuation payment (DASP) [5].

The catch is the tax. The taxed element is taxed at 35%, or 65% if any of the money came from a working holiday visa (417 or 462). If you ever held one of those visas and the payment includes contributions made under it, the 65% rate applies to the whole payment [5]. Six months after you leave, an unclaimed fund passes the money to the ATO, and you can still claim it from there [5].

Permanent residents and citizens can't use the DASP [5]. Once you get permanent residence, your super stays in Australia until you meet a condition of release, normally retirement after preservation age.

Your UK pensions: leaving them where they are

Moving to Sydney doesn't mean you have to move your UK pensions. A final salary scheme from an old employer, a few workplace pots and maybe a SIPP can all sit in the UK and pay you later. Before you go, or soon after:

• Give every scheme your Australian address and an email. Royal Mail to Randwick is fine, but schemes lose track of people who move.
• Ask what each provider allows for non-UK residents. Some won't pay into an Australian account or let you change investments from abroad. A UK bank account solves a lot of this; see our guide to keeping a UK bank account when you live abroad.
• Trace old pots through the government's Pension Tracing Service.

Tax on UK pensions while you live in Sydney

Once you're an Australian tax resident, Australia taxes your worldwide income, including UK pension income. The UK–Australia double taxation agreement decides which country gets first go [7]. Broadly, most private and workplace pensions paid to an Australian resident are taxed in Australia, while UK government service pensions, such as civil service, NHS or armed forces pensions, are usually taxed only in the UK. HMRC has a claim process so your UK provider can pay you without UK tax where the agreement allows.

Lump sums are where it gets fiddly. The 25% tax-free lump sum that's tax-free in the UK isn't automatically tax-free in Australia, and the growth on a foreign pension since you became resident can be taxable here [1]. A tax adviser who knows both countries can check your case before you draw anything big. Our guide to double taxation agreements and reliefs explains the basics.

And remember the State Pension is a separate story: it's paid in Australia but frozen. Our guide to the frozen UK State Pension in Australia explains what that costs you.

Moving a UK pension into super: the rules and the risks

You'll hear about this at barbecues, usually from someone who knows a bloke. Here's what the official rules actually say. None of this is a recommendation: a transfer is a big, often irreversible decision and needs regulated financial advice.

The UK side

• The receiving fund must be a recognised overseas pension scheme. HMRC publishes the list, and the ATO points UK transferors to it [1]. Only a small number of Australian funds appear on it, because they must lock the money away on terms that match UK rules. If the fund isn't recognised, the transfer is taxed in the UK at at least 40% [2].
• The 25% overseas transfer charge applies unless an exclusion fits. The main one for ordinary savers is that you live in the same country as the scheme, so moving money into an Australian fund while you live in Sydney is usually excluded, within your overseas transfer allowance [2]. Move away within five years and the charge can come back.
• If you have a final salary pension worth more than £30,000, you must by law take advice from an FCA-authorised adviser before transferring it [8]. The FCA believes most people would be best advised not to give up a guaranteed income.

The Australian side

• The six-month window. If you transfer within six months of becoming an Australian resident, none of the transfer counts as "applicable fund earnings". After that, the growth since you became resident is taxable [1].
• Who pays the tax. You can include those earnings in your own tax return, or, if you transfer the whole UK pension directly to an Australian fund, elect for the fund to pay tax on them at 15% [1].
• The caps. Most of the transfer counts as a non-concessional contribution. A large UK pot can easily blow through the AUD 130,000 cap, or even the three-year bring-forward, and excess contributions mean extra tax [1][4].

Put those together and timing matters on both sides of the world. That's exactly why a regulated adviser who understands both systems has to look at it. Check any adviser on the FCA register, and be wary of firms based in Australia or elsewhere that aren't regulated for UK pension advice. If your partner is Australian and you might one day move to the UK together, our sister site ExpatCooee explains what happens to super while you live overseas.

Spotting a pension scam

Brits abroad are a favourite target, and Australia is no exception. The FCA's warning signs include [6]:

• a cold call, email or text about your pension, or a "free pension review"
• a promise of better guaranteed returns than your current scheme
• pressure to act fast, or an offer to release cash before 55 (57 from 2028)
• unregulated, overseas or high-risk investments

UK providers now check transfers and can refer you to a free MoneyHelper Pension Safeguarding Guidance appointment before one goes ahead. Treat that as a free second opinion, not a faff. If something feels off, ask in our community group for Brits in Australia before you sign anything. Plenty of people there have been pitched the same thing.

Sources

1. ATO: Transfer from a foreign super fund to an Australian super fund
2. GOV.UK: Transferring your pension – transferring to an overseas pension scheme
3. ATO: Super guarantee rates and maximum contribution base
4. ATO: Contributions caps
5. ATO: Departing Australia superannuation payment (DASP)
6. FCA: Pension scams
7. GOV.UK (FCDO): Living in Australia
8. FCA: Pension transfer advice – what to expect

Keep reading

• The frozen UK State Pension in Australia
• Australian taxes for Brits: the UK link and your State Pension
• UK workplace and private pensions abroad, and the transfer warnings
• Leaving the UK: telling HMRC (P85) and your last tax year