Withdrawing my money from company pensions scheme

coresme2

Hello,
Recently, our company was taken over by a German company and the old final salary pension we had with the old company was moved over to the new one. Around this time, we were sent letters (which I never recieved) saying that the pension scheme with our new company would be automatically switched to unless we manually opted out. I didn't respond to the letter obviously, and was automatically entered into the new final salary scheme. My problem with this is that I never wanted to be involved with this pension, giving no indication that I did, and the company (Siemens SBS in this case) won't refund me my money which has already been withheld from my salary by the time I get it. The best they say that they can do is to cancel all contributions from 3 months in the future. This seems unbelievable and surely unlawful as it must remain my money at all times. Is there anything I can say or do to get back this money that's been taken?



Thanks for any help you can provide,

R

jennifernil

Surely being in a "final salary scheme" is pretty desirable?

dunstonh

and will probably be compulsary from 2012, where such a scheme exists.

coresme2

Thanks for the prompt replies. No, I've decided to manage my own investments and have no wish for a pension of any kind. I've come to disagree with the idea of pensions in general as they are too complex, unreliable and self-serving. Besides, I might well be dead in 5 years! While i can stop the drain from 3 months in the future, its irking me that the firm gets to keep my contributions so far. Besides, the question is not why would you want to, the question is how?

Xbigman

If your new final salary scheme is getting employer contributions added to it you would be best off keeping this going and having your own investments on top. Unless your final salary scheme is massively underfunded. Even then it might be worth it. I'm just trying to point out it might be a good scheme and worth looking at.

Personally I'm waiting to see if Deutche post do the same to my well funded Exel final salary pension fund.
Regards



X

dunstonh

No, I've decided to manage my own investments and have no wish for a pension of any kind.

Your investments are highly unlikely to come close to the benefits of a final salary occupational pension scheme.

Besides, I might well be dead in 5 years!

And the pension would provide a bigger payout than investments held in a different tax wrapper.

Whilst pensions are not as beneficial as they once were, are you sure you are eliminating it for the right reasons. At the moment, it doesnt look like you are. You appear to be mixing up tax wrapper with investment content.

cheggers

coresme2 wrote:

Hello,
Recently, our company was taken over by a German company and the old final salary pension we had with the old company was moved over to the new one. Around this time, we were sent letters (which I never recieved) saying that the pension scheme with our new company would be automatically switched to unless we manually opted out. I didn't respond to the letter obviously, and was automatically entered into the new final salary scheme. My problem with this is that I never wanted to be involved with this pension, giving no indication that I did, and the company (Siemens SBS in this case) won't refund me my money which has already been withheld from my salary by the time I get it. The best they say that they can do is to cancel all contributions from 3 months in the future. This seems unbelievable and surely unlawful as it must remain my money at all times. Is there anything I can say or do to get back this money that's been taken?



Thanks for any help you can provide,

R

Are you mad, you don't want a final salary pension!!

I swap any day for one.

chesky369

I'm surprised that none of your colleagues mentioned it to you at the time of the changeover - where I work, any correspondence about pensions starts a very lively discussion.

coresme2

Thanks again for your informative replies. Well they were talking about it, but I was too busy working at the time! I'm sure the scheme has some merit to be sure for some people, but I'm just annoyed that I don't have any flexibility with my money! To be told that I can't have my previous payments back by some...female...in HR when I never asked to be included and certainly never signed anything saying explicitly that i wanted to be included seems wrong.

I'm well aware that the company in question gets tax relief from pension contributions, and the thought that I might be inadvertantly helping their financial cause irks me somewhat...

I tend to play with my money on the stockmarket and have a 452% rate of return on average (including total considerations, and historically only;). Granted, that the pension contributions are miniscule compared to what I invest, but every little helps, and dang it all, its the principle of the matter!!! Besides which, the nature of my work means that i will flit to and from different companies in the coming years so, being a member of a pension scheme at any of them strikes me as silly :mad:

chriss1979

452%!! :drool: Any tips?

Debt_Free_Chick

coresme2 wrote:

Hello,
Around this time, we were sent letters (which I never recieved) saying that the pension scheme with our new company would be automatically switched to unless we manually opted out. I didn't respond to the letter obviously and was automatically entered into the new final salary scheme. My problem with this is that I never wanted to be involved with this pension, giving no indication that I did

The fact that you didn't receive the letters is irrelevant, I think. You've always been able to opt-out of a pension scheme, although you usually have to give some notice, so the company can sort out the payroll side of things. I can see that you didn't have the chance to respond to this particular letter, but given that you felt so strongly about the new scheme, why did you not make this known? It's irrelevant really, but a little odd that you simply didn't write and say "I don't want to join".

...and the company (Siemens SBS in this case) won't refund me my money which has already been withheld from my salary by the time I get it.

The company doesn't have the money as it's been paid in to the pension scheme and, in exchange, you have a few more weeks or months of pension rights.

The best they say that they can do is to cancel all contributions from 3 months in the future.

I assume you've wasted no more time and filled in the form to give 3 months notice?

This seems unbelievable and surely unlawful as it must remain my money at all times.

Of course it doesn't "remain your money". Firstly, you paying contributions is part of the same deal that requires them to give you pensionable service, which results in a pension.

Secondly, once the money is deducted from your pay, your employer MUST pay it over to the pension scheme trustees quickly (within 19 days of the end of the tax month in which the deduction is made). Once it's in the pension scheme, then no contributions can be refunded unless you leave employment, with less than 2 years pensionable service in the pension scheme. I suspect you know this :rolleyes:

Is there anything I can say or do to get back this money that's been taken?

Nope. But you can be pretty certain that the value of the pension rights you've had in return for your contributions will turn out to be worth more than the amount you personally contributed. So, chin up :j