SERPS again!

Milarky

The payments are anonymous since it isn't explained how they are worked out from earnings. So they would benefit from a calculation which shows - at an early stage - whether or not an error has been made - which happens all too frequently.

It doesn't have to be NICO - it could just as well be a letter from the DWP once a year - but the important thing is to provide the individual with a statement of the objective facts and the context to them [eg when SERPS was reorganised into S2P as few years back how many people outside of the financial professions were aware that the rebate struture altered as a result or that rebates changed?] It's also the case - for instance- that you can get a rebate and a 'contracted-in' credit for the same periods in some cases. But who would know this, and who is giving this information to the affected people? [And I keep reading in the press that S2P rebates have been 'reduced' whereas they have definitely got bigger as suggested above. These are financial journos printing this stuff - without attribution - and it's just duff information in my view.]

Going back to the annual statement idea - there was a definite proposal way back in the 1998/99 green paper - that along with a new 'state second pension' said there would - in time - be a consolidated annual statement given to everyone showing their accrued pension rights to date on one sheet of paper [well probably over several sheets actually!]. Well, it's nearly 2005 and what's become of that idea then?

Extract from "Partnership in Pensions":

http://www.dwp.gov.uk/publications/dss/1998/pengp/sum/main/save.asp

Many people who could save under the current pension system are deterred from doing so. The pensions mis-selling scandal and the Maxwell affair have knocked confidence hard. Many people are put off by the complexity of pensions, and many others by the difficulty of finding affordable and reliable independent financial advice.

That is why we are reforming the way the whole pension system works. We propose:


better regulation to restore confidence in the system, including a role for the new Financial Services Authority;

better information on schemes, including the development of telephone information lines;

better information on people's own need to save, including an annual statement for all those in public and private schemes detailing their current predicted pension, so they can see for themselves if they should save more for retirement; and

wider recognition of the benefits of occupational pension schemes, and measures to encourage more people to join them.





15 December 1998

isasmurf

The consolidated annual statement is slowly coming through, although strangely (or perhaps not) it is being reannounced in the latest Pensions Bill.

From what I understand it is up to the employers to sign up to this consolidated pension statement, although the employee must sign a form to agree that DWP can release the state pension information to the employer. I'm due to receive my first combined pensions forecast fairly soon.

I think the latest Pensions Bill switches things around that individuals can access the combined pension statement through this 'Retirement Income Planner'. They say it will project your retirement income for all your current state and private pension provision. I'm not sure how they plan to do this.