I'm thinking of spending the next few years doing IT Contracting whilst waiting for SW Visa (AOR Oct 1st 2007 - so have a while yet). Being a contractor obviously gives you more flexibility in terms of a private pension. I'm thinking it's probably not worth paying into one and just saving the money that would go into one to take to Canada.

Obviously there's no guarantees Canada will happen and if it doesn't, I'll be left with not paying 5+ years into a private pension. I currently have about 8 years worth of contributions into two private pension schemes (from permanent jobs).

What do people think?

The only reason I ever paid into UK pensions was because my employer matched my payments. Otherwise the money is tied up for decades, the pension managers suck out 0.5-1% a year so they can get a fat bonus to pay for their country mansion, and you're inherently making the bet that you'll be paying less tax on your pension than you'd pay on that income today (otherwise there's no real benefit to sticking it in a pension fund); which doesn't seem a particularly safe bet with British taxes rising all the time. Oh, and as the boomers retire and sell off all the shares, real estate, etc, in their pension funds, that won't much help the value of pensions for the generations following them.

The only advantage to paying into a pension would be to supposedly pay less tax on it than if I take it as income. It would obviously not be matched like it is at the moment by my present employer. As you say, it would be then tied up for another 35 years in the UK before I could try and get my hands on it..... I'm thinking it's probably best to accompany me to Canada as cash..... I can then think about starting a new pension there, albeit it would be a modest one by then....