Opt out of SERPS/S2P?

Jay-Jay_4

Thanks for that advice,

I obviously need to make a decision then, how do I go about contracting back in?

Should I ring the IR?

Pal

Phone your pension provider. They will tell you what to do and send you any forms you need to complete.

Jay-Jay_4

Pal wrote:

Phone your pension provider. They will tell you what to do and send you any forms you need to complete.

I haven't got a pension provider

dunstonh

Jay-Jay wrote:

I haven't got a pension provider

You must have to be contracted out.

Jay-Jay_4

dunstonh wrote:

You must have to be contracted out.

Honestly!!! I know that I contracted out because they had me sign a form but I don't have a pension with anyone else. As they were an IFA, could they have got around that?

Is there a way of checking if I am actually contacted out if you don't think that I am?

dunstonh

Ask the IFA who did it?

To contract someone out, a personal pension is set up to accept the rebates. You should receive an annual statement from that provider.

Who did the IFA recommend? What did it say on their reason why letter (as it would have been called then)?

What did you do with the policy document that was sent to you or the cancellation rights?

gustav

dunstonh wrote:

Ask the IFA who did it?To contract someone out, a personal pension is set up to accept the rebates. You should receive an annual statement from that provider.

Surely the InlandRevenue can tell JayJay where the money is being paid to.
Or is it the people at Newcastle on Tyne?

robnye

Jay-Jay wrote:

Honestly!!! I know that I contracted out because they had me sign a form but I don't have a pension with anyone else. As they were an IFA, could they have got around that?

Is there a way of checking if I am actually contacted out if you don't think that I am?

yes if you contact the pensions department and ask for a pension calculation, they will create a forcast, for both your standard state pension and whether you are entitled to any serps/s2p pension, from the contributions you have made.

I did and the pension department confirmed that since i contracted out many years ago, my current additional pot (serps/s2p) is empty....... the money is sitting in pension funds that i can see.

Jay-Jay_4

Thanks for all your advice and once again, my apologies to the OP for hijacking this thread.

I'll ring up the IR and check what happened.

Paul_Varjak

You may be interested to know that there may be another reason for not contracting out of S2P - that applies in case like mine. This means I qualify for 100% S2P with just 10% class 1 NI contributions!


This is a quote from the Guide to State Pensions (NP46 2002):


PEOPLE WHO ARE LONG-TERM ILL OR DISABLED

The State Second Pension rules will treat you as if you hads earnings at the Low Earnings Threshold for each complete tax year that you were entitled to long-term Incapacity Benefit or got Severe Disablement Allowance, as long as, when you reach State Pension age, you have worked and paid, or treated as having paid Class 1 National Insurance contributions for a certain period of time.


This raises the question - What is a certain period of time? Well that question is answered in later editions of NP46:

normally one-tenth of your working life since 1978

The problem is that entitlement to S2P (based on the above rule) is never included in the State Pension forecast, so I have asked for the Pension Service to confirm my entitlement in writing (which they do seem prepared to do)

You can also qualify for S2P (if you have certain caring responsibilities). In this case, I do not believe there is any requirement to have paid class 1 NI!