works pension

McKneff

how long before my 60th birthday should i be contacted by the people who deal with my works pension to allow me to choose what i want to do.

Jennifer_Jane

Why don''t you contact them? For our Company the forms are all on the intranet. I phoned them to ask that question and they just said as soon as you know when you want to retire. I suppose it depends on the Company and who administers the pension.

Good luck! Exciting time!
Jen
x

yelf

its generally about 6 weeks.

McKneff

Jennifer_Jane wrote: »

Why don''t you contact them? For our Company the forms are all on the intranet. I phoned them to ask that question and they just said as soon as you know when you want to retire. I suppose it depends on the Company and who administers the pension.

Good luck! Exciting time!
Jen
x

Cant quite make up my mind about it being exciting or not, one minute i do then i dont. I have worked there for 23 years so am going to phase it and drop down to 3 days from 5 so will have lots of long 4 day weekends
It seems to be snowballing this last few weeks and now its down to 10.
But have decidd i do want to take my pension. Will give them a ring tomorrow, my boss said about 4 weeks before but that doesnt seem a long time if i am going to excersize the open market option.
Thanks for your input.

MikeJones_2

Hi McKneff,

What type of scheme is it defined benefit (e.g. such as a final salary type) or money purchase?

I ask because there are different options (and you mention the OMO).

Mike

seven-day-weekend

I did three days a week for two years before finally leaving, my husband did 2.5.

It was good, a great way to wind down.

Happy Pension!

McKneff

Its a money purchase, i think there is only about £50K altogether.
I intend to take my lump sum and expect around a pension of around £150 per month, if I'm lucky.

It was originally a final salary but a few years ago it was discontinued so i feel a bit hard done by but hey ho, in October i will just put my hand out and smile.

I think i will probably do about 2 years even if its just to get my 25 years in.
Cant believe i was a sprightly 36 year old well slightly sprightly. Got to admit i am getting a bit excited now.

MrChips

Hi McKneff. From your posting, it sounds like you were originally in a final salary scheme before this was closed and a money purchase scheme was opened instead.

In that case, do you still have final salary benefits in addition to your more recent money purchase pension? Or did you transfer everything into the money purchase pension?

McKneff

No there is nothing apart from the pension pot.
i got to admit i just went along with it. Everyone else in the pension at the time were bosses and i just didnt get any guidance = it was just a sign here
and actually dont even remember doing that. I think i was a bit naive never having had anything to do with pensions. any observations.

tawl_2

i wouldn't just give up on the final salary pension yet! when did the final salary scheme wound up?

The Financial Assistance Scheme (FAS) offers help to some people who have lost out on their pension because:

they were a member of an under-funded defined benefit scheme that started to wind-up between 1 January 1997 and 5 April 2005, and either:

their scheme began to wind-up and did not have enough money to pay members’ benefits, and

the employer cannot pay the shortfall because it is insolvent, no longer exist or no longer has to meet its commitment to pay its debt to the pension scheme:

or
they were a member of an under-funded defined-benefit scheme that started to wind up after 5 April 2005 but before 22 December 2008 and is ineligible for help from the Pension Protection Fund because the sponsoring employer became insolvent before 6 April 2005.

The PPF has now taken responsibility for FAS and if you are eligible, you can get 90% of the pension you have accrued.

MrChips

It sounds to me like the OP no longer has any final salary benefits. Rather the employer set up a new money purchase pension and members were (possibly) encouraged to take a transfer value of their benefits into this scheme.

This is quite a complicated process and probably require all sorts of consultations and financial advice, certainly if done today.

When did this happen OP?