pension advice please

wattapain

al_yrpal wrote:

If you've been in the NHS for 25 years, you deserve every penny. Enjoy your retirement!

Tell me about it !! :rolleyes: :rotfl:

I could, but I'd better not :rotfl: :rotfl:
Actually it's been more like 30+ on & off :eek: :eek:
But it's GOOOOOOOOOD to be retired!!! :j :j



Terri :j

wattapain

dunstonh wrote:

No you dont. You have to stop it this tax year (which can be the last day in the tax year) but you do not have to commence it yet. That is the whole point of going with an FSAVC rather than an AVC. I am guessing the person you spoke to wasnt aware that there was a difference.

Anyone with an FSAVC retiring now would do well to consider delaying the FSAVC until the new tax year and under the new regime.



Well, after getting the pension options form, i rang the 'helplin' and asked if I could defer taking the benefits till April, and was told I had to take it from 1st Jan as that was when i started taking benefits my occupational pension. When I queried this, the young boy ( at least that's what he sounded like) put me on hold while he spoke to 'his manager' and then came back and repeated tha that was what I had to do.
Help please!!
Terri

dunstonh

Well, after getting the pension options form, i rang the 'helplin' and asked if I could defer taking the benefits till April, and was told I had to take it from 1st Jan as that was when i started taking benefits my occupational pension. When I queried this, the young boy ( at least that's what he sounded like) put me on hold while he spoke to 'his manager' and then came back and repeated tha that was what I had to do.
Help please!!

They are wrong. An AVC has to commence at the same time as the occupational scheme unless you can get the trustees to agree otherwise. An FSAVC does not need to commence at the same time and you can defer it to after April.

wattapain

Thanks for that - I'm gonna get back to them.

dunstonh

Please feedback what happens.

wattapain

Well, I just rang them and again spoke to just another call centre operator, who said that it was true that I could not defer this till April.
When I queried this strongly, he just said 'I have the rules in front of me and you can't defer it' !!
So what now?
Terri

dunstonh

[size=-1]The following is a generic description of FSAVCs issued by the Govt.

www.hmrc.gov.uk/pensionschemes/ir12_supp.pdf

Look at section 5.7

[/size]Flexible Use of FSAVCs

5.7 The facility to offer FSAVC benefits without reference to retirement or the timing of benefits from the approvedretirement benefits scheme or relevant statutory scheme of the employer (see paragraph 5.3) may cover, for example:

• the right to take FSAVC benefits before the benefits from the employer's scheme only, or
• the right, up to age 75, to defer FSAVC benefits beyond the date that benefits from the employer's scheme have come into payment only, or
• both of the above.

---

Or take a look at the following link from Scottish Life (who have an excellent repository of information on pensions).

http://www.scottishlife.co.uk/scotlife/Web/Site/faq2.asp?Category=OPS/Freestanding%20AVC%20scheme


Do the benefits under the FSAVC scheme have to be taken at the same time as the employer’s scheme benefits?

No, a member of a FSAVCS can elect to take their benefits at any time between age 50 (or earlier if the member leaves employment due to incapacity) and age 75 irrespective of whether the member has retired, left pensionable service or taken their benefits from their employer’s pension scheme. If used, the facility must be applied to all FSAVCs in respect of a particular employment. Therefore any FSAVCs with other providers relating to the same employment should be treated in the same way e.g. all applied for drawdown or none. But other FSAVC benefits relating to a different employment of the member may be excluded for this purpose.

wattapain

Thanks again DH for that extremely helpful post. Have printed off a few pages and now hopefully will go into the fray again, this time slightly more armed ( maybe not too dangerous though :rotfl: )
Wat a performance eh!! :rolleyes:
Wish me luck & will keep you updated
Terri :cool:

wattapain

Well, what a F*****g shambles!!
First I got a young call centre operator who gave me the same spiel as before - then I asked to speak to an advisor - or at least someone who knew what they were talking about.
So she put me through to another person - but she didn't even know what an AVC was!! Her businessis life policies apparently :rolleyes:
Anyway I asked her to arrange someone to come and speak to me about it - supposd tobe coming nextweek ( but I won't hold my breath).
Watch this space

dunstonh

The CIS are a complete mess. I had a pension transfer case from them last last year and it took 4 attempts to get correct projection values off them. The differences were in the hundreds of thousands. They couldnt make their mind up if there were guaranteed annuity rates applied to it or not. One letter said there were, next one there wasnt....

You could always get an IFA to come and see you. The IFA could get the info in writing from the CIS. If they still insist that the FSAVC is not as "free standing" as the FS means, then a complaint can go in. Once it has been resolved, we would be looking at around April time and the IFA can do an open market option for you and give you a far better annuity on the remaining 75% than the CIS rates.