Pension Tracing
steve-me5
Posts: 13 Forumite
Any advice please on how to approach a company regarding pension tracing - my parents both worked for a large UK company for a combined total of about 40 years - mum passed away last year but dad is still here with dementia - before he lost capacity i asked if he had ever opted out the company pension and without any hesitation he said no - am finding it very difficult to believe that both parent would have voluntarily opted out of, what at the time and probably still is, a very good company pension? i have contacted the pension company once already with a cursory email and they say they can find no trace of my parents ever paying in to a company pension - is there anything more i can do regards tracing? are there any other records anywhere which could be traced or is everything with the pesnion administrators? ( i have LPoA) - thanks in advance
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Comments
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Check with the Pension Tracing Service https://www.gov.uk/find-pension-contact-details using as much information as you have. It's quite possible that the scheme to which your parents might have belonged has been wound up, in which case benefits may now be with an insurer and the present administrators of the scheme simply don't have the necessary records, even if they 'should'.
Unless you have some sort of evidence to show that one or other parent was in a pension scheme, it is very difficult to prove otherwise - but a 'cursory e-mail' may not have given the administrators enough to go on. Write again, giving full names and details as far as you can of dates of birth, NI numbers, periods of employment, names of employer(s) (might not have been the main company and/or had a change of name).
Also worth checking if the state pension has any deduction because your parents were contracting out of the state additional pension at any stage. That would signify they had some sort of (non-state) pension provision.0 -
So your mum didn't get a pension from this company?0
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not that i am aware they only had state pensions as income - and knowing my dad i wouldnt be at all surprised if he just plain forgot that the onus was on him to contact the pension on his 60th birthday to make the claim
ive checked the employment history for dad - it is seventeen years - i need to get onto NIC records if i can to check mums employment dates but i think from memory its about 25 years ish0 -
Have you checked your father's annual statement of benefits from the DWP?
Do you see anything like this
HOW.YOUR BENEFIT IS MADE UP
basic State Pension
Pre 97 additional State Pension
less Contracted-Out Deduct ion (COD) of
Total payable
Post 97 additional State Pension
Graduated Retirement Benefit
If you can't find the current year's, there should be one arriving in the post in the next few days for 2018-19.
Do you have any of your mother's old paperwork?0 -
just checking now - NI office have confirmed that no contracted out payments at all so all ni went to state pension0
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Could you tell us the name of the employer/scheme and rough dates of employment? 1988 is a key date; that's the year employers lost the right to make membership of their pension scheme compulsory and many moved to a situation where employees had to sign up to join. Many employees never got round to doing just that...0
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Are there any old payslips anywhere in the house? There could be some details on those.0
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it was pre88 - dad started work there in 80/81 and mum was there before that date but NI records have stated there were no contracted out payments at all for mumCould you tell us the name of the employer/scheme and rough dates of employment? 1988 is a key date; that's the year employers lost the right to make membership of their pension scheme compulsory and many moved to a situation where employees had to sign up to join. Many employees never got round to doing just that...0 -
it was pre88 - dad started work there in 80/81 and mum was there before that date but NI records have stated there were no contracted out payments at all for mum
Did your mum work part time? Many schemes didn't allow part timers to join before 1995, and then your mum may have had to actually apply to join after that.
Your dad may have opted out if money was tight, but his generation tended to see the value of paying into a pension scheme if one was available.
It is possible - but unusual for the time - for the scheme not to have been contracted out, hence the State pension result.
Can you post the name of the Company?0 -
If your father was in a contracted out DB scheme from 1980 onwards then there should be a GMP.
It is possible that the pension scheme was not contracted out, in which case he would have been accruing additional state pension (SERPS).
Does your father have any pension provision other than his state pension?
Is it possible that his pension was transferred to a subsequent employer?0
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