Opt out of SERPS/S2P?

jamesd

Are you sure that quote is from wikipedia? Google finds almost that exact wording but at seemoney, not wikipedia. If it is from some page at wikipedia I'm interested in knowing which one, in case Google couldn't find it when I looked.

gingerpo

jamesd wrote: »

Are you sure that quote is from wikipedia? Google finds almost that exact wording but at 'seemoney' not wikipedia. if it is form some page at wikipedia I'm interested in knowing which one, in case Google couldn't find it when I looked.

You're absolutely right! My apologies for getting that wrong. I've done nothing but look into all aspects of pensions for 3 days and my brain is scrambled eggs...

scotnan

jamesd wrote: »

if you phone the HMRC Contracted Out Pensions Helpline they will be able to tell you year by year whether you were contracted out and which pension scheme was getting the contracted out money.

The National Insurance Helpline they reference can tell you for each year of your life whether that year counted for the Basic State Pension and how much you earned each year.

The Future Pension Centre has information about state pension statements and related issues.

The free Pension Tracing Service can help to track down old pensions.

For both, be sure that you have note taking facilities so they only have to go through the information once.

Thank you so much for providing those contacts.

Finding out about our pensions was next on my To Do list and as I quite literally have not got a clue about anything to do with pensions, I just didn't know where to start.

These numbers will really help.

elantan

Hi wonder if anyone can shed some light on something for me, have been talking to various people in my work place about pensions ie: do you have one how is it doing etc, one girl tells me that all her national insurance gets paid into a pension and when she comes to retire she will not get any state pension at all but she will get the pension her national insurance has been paid into, she explained that she doesn't pay any extra into this pension at all, all contributions come from her national insurance, I was a bit puzzled by this and asked if she meant SERPS SP2 contracted out etc and she assures me that no it's her full national insurance contributions that get paid into her pension and nothing else, she tells me that her pension is allowing her to retire early from the age of 50 if she so wishes and that he will be getting a tidy retirement amount.

I'm quite confused with it all as I was under the impression that you couldn't pay all of your national insurance into a pension but could pay some of it ( ie contracting out) I was also surprised to hear that he won't receive any state pension at all

We have talked about it several times now and I have suggested she double checks everything to make sure she has adequate provision as we have a works pension ( it's NEST so not great but better than nothing ) that she says she doesn't need due to her national insurance pension ... It is non of my business an what she chooses to do is totally her choice but as a co worker I would hate for her to reach retiremt age and have not enough to live off of when of making a small contribution could make a difference for her

Has anyone heard of this type of pension before where all the national insurance goes into the pension and the person forfeits any right to a state pension ?

This person got this pension when they worked Ian factory at the age of 17 they are now mid 40's so have been paying into it do a while

Thanks in advance

jamesd

I've never heard of such a thing. She's probably confused. The Contracted Out Pensions Helpline may be the best place to try to get her to contact. They can also tell her that contracting out didn't prevent her from accumulating rights to the Basic State Pension, just the Additional.

elantan

Thanks James I did think she was confused but wasn't positive ... saw her tonight and passed the message on... Hopefully she will listen and be pro active

dunstonh

I havent heard of anything like that either. What she describes is not possible.

I think she is getting mixed up with contracting out of S2P. I would encourage her to get it looked at. Otherwise she is in for a big disappointment.

It sounds like she is using bits of correct information or information that may have been right when she started but changed with legislation changes. e.g. 50 may have been right when started but not now. Yes, you can start it earlier (or later). However, it is only the additional state pension that was contracted out. Contracting out used some of the NI paid as a rebate to the pension company. Not all of it.

elantan

Thanks Dunstonh, that's what I thought but as I don't know much about pensions thought maybe it was a type of pension I hadn't heard about, we've spoke about it several times now ( over the past year or so) and I keep checking with her to make sure that I am understanding it right ... But she is very adamant that that is what she has

Have mentioned getting a pension forecast to her and also double checking what she has exactly last night it seemed more that she was humouring me ... I can do no more though so will leave her to it now

You can lead a horse to water etc

Thanks again though ... At least I am slowly understanding things lol

magpiecottage

gingerpo wrote: »

In addition to my earlier post, I need to get some pension advice but when I look into IFAs they all want you to have at least 50,000 in savings before they'll talk to you!

This is because the Financial Services Authority decided to initiate a series of initiatives, in particular something called the Retail Distribution Review (known as the RDR), increased fees, requires all IFAs to have at least £10,000 sitting around doing nothing (shortly to increase to £20,000), to pay levies to itself, the Financial Ombudsman Service and to pay for the failings of other financial firms that have one bust after misselling things they would never have dreamed of selling themselves.

They can then find they are marched off to FOS on some trumped up complaint where somebody who is not qualified to do their job will decide that they were in the wrong using standards that contradict what their textbooks tell them.

When it turns out that the FSA failed to do job properly and allowed a business to misdescribe its products to an adviser, the adviser will be held liable.

And a financial adviser can be held responsible for life - and beyond. I have just been helping somebody who has been told to "compensate" a complainant who was sold something by his father because it might have got a better return elsewhere.

The adviser has to build that into his charges so he needs clients with enough to invest to meet that.

If you do not like it, I suggest you write to the Financial Conduct Authority telling them and asking them what they intend to do about it.

souperstar

I have a bit of a dilemma in which I don't know whether it is worth the hassle for me to opt into the Work Pension next year when the new rules come into play. I will be 55 and also think that the company will be folding in about 5 years. I have two private pensions, one of which is frozen. How much more monthly benefit would I gain from opting into the work pension for 5 years?