SERPS opt out

katyk_2

Hi

I am embarrassed to say how little I understand my pension basis but I opted out of SERPS somewhere in the late 80's on the advice of a small financial advisor yet, through raising children and only working part time for a lot of my life, I only had one small company pension from 1990-1992. I have little idea if I would be entitled to try to claim for being ill advised (I worked at least 20 hours/week all my life until 2009 when I went full time - the full time job has a company pension)

I recently received a blanket email from a company claiming they specialise in chasing redress for people who opted out of SERPS but am always a little wary of such

Can anyone advise best place to find out more?

Thank you

Your_Hero

katyk wrote: »

Can anyone advise best place to find out more?

Thank you

Yes. Try contacting your pension provider.

xylophone

You have a former "protected rights" policy? You still have the paperwork?
Does the provider send you statements concerning the policy?

You also have a deferred pension from a former employer for whom you worked in the nineties?What information do you have about that?

What kind of pension do you have at the moment?

Do you expect to become eligible for state pension on or after 6/4/16?

https://www.gov.uk/new-state-pension/overview

dunstonh

I have little idea if I would be entitled to try to claim for being ill advised

There is a nice little guide to this from the regulator.

http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20100210151716/moneymadeclear.fsa.gov.uk/pdfs/s2p_wrongly_advised_ink.pdf

On page 4/5 there is a flow chart. Effectively, if you were under 40 at the time, then it was justifiable.

The new pension rules and the new state pension actually make contracting out for more beneficial then it used to be.

I recently received a blanket email from a company claiming they specialise in chasing redress for people who opted out of SERPS but am always a little wary of such

you should be. Spam emails are usually not for your benefit. There are only a couple of claims companies active in SERPS claims. The CMCs thought it could be a money earner for them but the regulator did a review many years ago and found a potential failure rate of just 1.5%. i.e. only 1.5% were likely mis-sold. It published the guide above and after that most CMCs gave up on SERPS complaints.

However, a couple remain and what they is obtain your pension details and tell you your pension is rubbish and that they can get better and will transfer it to a new provider and take a fee from the pension at the same time. That is where they make their money.

katyk_2

Your_Hero wrote: »

Yes. Try contacting your pension provider.

My current pension holder with the job I hold now? Or then one back when I opted out?

Thanks

dunstonh

Or then one back when I opted out?

You mean contracted out. Opt out means something different. If you use the term opt out with a pension provider, especially a workplace scheme, they will think you mean something else.

jamesd

The contracted out rebate money would have been paid into a pension for you. You can find out how much by contacting that pension scheme.

Since you are still working and I assue will reach state pension age it is likely that you have not lost out. This is because there is a cap on the flat rate state pension that is normally reached after 35 years of paying NI or getting credits. Those who contracted out just take more years to get to the cap on the amount. So long as they work those years they get the same state pension as someone who never contracted out but also get their pension from contracting out as well, making them better off.

There are assorted details to consider like just when you reach state pension age, whether your foundation amount for the flat rate pension is over the normal flat rate level or not and how many years left for working. In general, though, the flat rate system makes those who contracted out winners if they can work or buy the extra years to get to the full flat rate.

For those reasons the chances of gaining from any claim are low and it's probably just an advance fee scam where the company makes its money from charging you some sort of processing fee, not from making successful claims.

xylophone

OP, are you able to answer the questions in post 3?