Final Salary Pension

webbo1981

Hi

I have got a Final Salary Pension with my current employer which I have had since when I started back in September 2001

I am currently ill off work where I have been since Feb 2012

After long discussions with my employer they have kindly offered me the chance of voluntary redudancy/compromise agreement instead of Dismissal, this will happen Feb 2013

May I ask what will happen with my pension? Or what should I do?

Just to note I wont be returning to work in the near future due to my illness

Any help would be much appreciated

Muscle750

First of all how old are you and are you looking at taking the pension if your age allows if you can't take it I don't think you got a lot of option my FS pension was pulled from under our feet some years ago and we were transferred into another scheme I pay 5 percent and the company does as well every month the company also puts money into the final salary pot which is froze to cover its shortfall.
You FS pension will be froze if you don't/can't take it.

webbo1981

Muscle750 wrote: »

First of all how old are you and are you looking at taking the pension if your age allows

Thank you for replying

I am 31 which regarding a pension is very young, do I have to just leave the pension until I am 65?

Muscle750

As it stands you can't get at it till your 55 and then you will get a vastly reduced amount than if you leave it till normal retiring age

webbo1981

Muscle750 wrote: »

As it stands you can't get at it till your 55 and then you will get a vastly reduced amount than if you leave it till normal retiring age

Ok thankyou, I assume I do nothing for now then

McKneff

Your pension won't be frozen. It's just that you wont be able to pay any more into it. But it will continue to grow till you take it whenever.

Just forget about it, it will be a nice bonus in the future.

kidmugsy

McKneff wrote: »

Y

Just forget about it

Metaphorically, yes. But in practice wouldn't it be wise to alert the scheme to changes of address?

webbo1981

kidmugsy wrote: »

Metaphorically, yes. But in practice wouldn't it be wise to alert the scheme to changes of address?

Assuming I move of course?

FLAPJACK

If they are offering you redundancy due to you being away from work due to illness, perhaps you can apply for accessing your pension through ill health.

If your employer accepts that (with medical evidence) you are unable to continue in their employment.....which sounds as if is the conclusion already, then you would be paid your pension right away....some schemes even enhance the pension to what it would have been had you carried on in their employment until retirement age had been reached.

The latter is only payable if it is medically stated that due to your illness you are unlikely to be fit enough to work again in any profession.


Worth a try though.

webbo1981

Thankyou for your help Flapjack, appreciated

rpc

FLAPJACK wrote: »

If they are offering you redundancy due to you being away from work due to illness, perhaps you can apply for accessing your pension through ill health.

<snip>

The latter is only payable if it is medically stated that due to your illness you are unlikely to be fit enough to work again in any profession.

You need to ask the pension administrators about this. Call them asap.

My (private sector) FS pension scheme makes provision for me to get my forecast pension if I can't do my own job due to ill health. This can be reviewed if I take up other gainful employment or improve significantly, but the requirement to trigger ill-health retirement is just an inability to do my current job for the forseeable future.

If your medical condition is ongoing then you can probably access some sort of benefit like this as they are common in FS schemes. It does depend on your condition being ongoing and not temporary.