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Warning: 'WASPI' women affected by State Pension age rise should watch out for 'steep rise' in scams
If you're a woman born in the 1950s affected by changes to your State Pension age, be on high alert for scams offering compensation for this. Campaign group Women Against State Pension Inequality (WASPI) and charity Independent Age have warned so-called 'WASPI' women to be extremely careful, as there's been a reported…
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Financial Advice for Cashing in a DB Pension
We are planning ahead to retire and ideally would like to cash in two small defined benefit pension pots. One currently has a cash in value of £35k and the other £55k. We are fortunate to have two remaining defined benefit pension pots elsewhere that will be our future security, so would like to use these smaller pots so…
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Junior SIPP
Good afternoon I have a query regarding backdating contributions for my child's Junior SIPP, which was opened on February 1st, 2024, with no contributions made Can I backdate contributions for the following tax years: 2023/2024 (£2880), 2024/2025 (£2880), and 2025/2026 (£2880). My understanding is that scheme membership is…
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Pension pot withdrawal
I have taken early retirement, monthly pension of £1000,plus part-time job,earning 600 per month. I have Isas /investments totalling approximately £57,000. Will not receive State pension till late 2026. My issue is I have a small pension pot of £23,000,which will mature in December 2025,giving me either a lump sum of £5500…
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Personal pension contribution limit
Hi. I have a question about pension contributions to which I don't seem to be able to find the answer. Probably easiest to explain in an example. A self-employed person starts a (SIPP) pension in 25/26 and contributes £10,000 into the pension in that year (£8,000 plus £2,000 tax relief). When it comes to working out their…
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Reduced pension
Hi my occupational pension is being reduced a year before I receive my state pension what can I do about this, I was in a non contribution pension scheme with marks and spencer, I will be getting my pension reduced by half is there any way around this, I will get the full state pension
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Civil Service Pension - Transfer problems
I recently left the Civil Service. I was there less than 6 months, so I did not qualify for the pension. A couple of months ago they sent me a letter telling me I could either have the money back that I had put in, OR a much bigger sum transferred to another pension. I opted to transfer the bigger sum. My personal pension…
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AVCs - can you do some via salary sacrifice and some not?
My employer has recently changed the way it deals with AVCs and they are now being done via salary sacrifice. I’ve been making large AVC contributions for a while but this change means my latest contribution is only a fraction of what it used to be. I’ve done the sums and can see that they’ve taken the maximum AVC possible…
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Pension contributions whilst on maternity leave
I recently read on here and other sites that an employers pension contributions should be based on the employee's salary before taking maternity leave, whilst my contributions are based on the actual pay i receive. Is this set in stone or is it down to an employers discretion? Does this apply to the full time that i'm off…
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GMP as non-resident
I am approaching 55 so decided to check all our pensions to
ensure I know what I have. I am getting a bit confused by my UK pension
and would really appreciate some clarification. I worked for Credit Suisse 02/1994-07/1997 and this is a ‘Contracted
in money purchase plan’. Credit Suisse say that I can access my pension at…
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Organisation told me I had opted out when I had not
I accepted I had opted out as I could not prove I had not done so. I knew I had not as I have never opted out of a pension in my life. I recently found a payslip and contacted the organisation. They admitted I had been opted in for some of my employment. I then contacted the pension organiser who said they had never paid…
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Appointed SASS Administrators renege on the agreement
Help, We set up our sass and went with an admin company we have found unfortunately to be unsatisfactory in the services provided. We joined the scheme in July 2022 and paid annual fees and were advised we would have annual board meetings with them to discuss the Sass. In the next year, they demanded their annual fees in…
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St James Place
SJP on BBC Rip Off Britain this morning,I wonder why? ;)
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Nest Sharia fund or 2040
I am currently with the nest Sharia fund which is taking a bit of.a beating as with all investments at the moment. I know that you only lose or realise the loss when you sell your shares. So far I’ve been holding on and hoping it starts going up the same as everyone with their investments. so far it’s dropped from 72k to…
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saint james place
Is SJM a safe place to invest in ? And does it perform well compared to other investment options ?
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Workplace pension contributions - Opting out of qualifying earnings cap
I recently asked to increase my contribution to my works pension, and was advised by our HR that my "pension contributions are currently capped using the “qualifying earnings”
calculation - you may want to consider lifting the
cap and moving from the qualifying calculation to either base pay or all pay
elements as this may…
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SIPP government top up
Hi all, I opened a SIPP with fidelity yesterday and added the £200 I plan to contribute monthly. I’ve divided it equally between two funds that I’ve chosen. I know the government will add £50 for every £200 I add monthly. Does this government top up get invested automatically and equally between the two funds I’ve chosen…
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Advice on financial priorities for the next 5 years – retirement planning & mortgage
Subject: Advice on financial priorities for the next 5 years – retirement planning & mortgage Hi all, I’d really appreciate any thoughts or advice from this wise forum – thank you in advance for your time and generosity in sharing your insights. I'm 57, single woman, and co-parent to a 14-year-old. I work full-time and…
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Ill health retirement with arthritis
After having a few years of ill health with joint issues, late last year I was diagnosed with Seronegative polyarthritis. i have been off work 8 months and now on reduced pay. I see a consultant and I am going through treatment, this may help but to what extent is unknown. I also had an MRi showing significant bone and…
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Additional payments with local authority pension scheme
I am in the local authority pension scheme. Last year I did a lot of overtime, so much so I decided to stop in February to prevent my annual salary going over £56600, because if it does my pension contribution goes up from 6.8% to 8.5% on my entire salary, which means I would actually take home almost £1000 less earning…
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