Very Little Knowledge of Pensions...Help?

5aq1b

I think I've went long enough now avoiding the topic of Pensions. I really should seriously consider looking into it more thoroughly and having full control of it so I'm looking for a bit of assistance please - I know some of my queries will be ridiculously n00bish.

I'm 32 and have have been working since 2006 (after graduating) for various companies. Private and public sector and as far as I know, I've been paying into a pension in each company I've worked. Embarassingly n00b question, but where is this money right now?

I am contracting now and hopefully will be for the forseeable future. What options are available to me now to start contributing towards a pension? I'd obviously have to set up a private pension?

A little pointer of where to look would be a great help

PensionTech

The money is still sitting in the pension schemes to which you contributed, unless you got a refund because you had under 2 years' service or under 30 days if in a Group Personal Pension Plan (and you should know if that was the case). The scheme administrators/providers will be able to give you information about your pensions with them, and you should keep them up to date with your address each time you move so that they can get in touch with you when necessary. If you don't know who administers your pensions, you can go through the Pension Tracing Service https://www.gov.uk/find-lost-pension and they will find the administrators/providers for you, for free. But you probably won't even need to do this. Chances are that the companies you worked for between 2006 and now are still trading, so you will probably be able to just call them up and ask for the contact details for the occupational pension scheme providers/administrators. Then you can write to or call those companies directly to get any information you need and give them your current contact details. And, once you've got in touch with them, make sure you keep a note of who they are and which pension they have!

I will leave the personal pension stuff to the resident IFAs, as I'm an occupational girl myself.

xylophone

You may have deferred defined benefit pensions /have left contributions in an old occupational scheme.

Example http://www.lgps.org.uk/lge/core/page.do?pageId=101760

Example https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/67448858#Comment_67448858 post 10

For whom did you work and for how long?

http://www.contractorcalculator.co.uk/Contractor_Pensions.aspx
may be worth a look.

5aq1b

PensionTech wrote: »

The money is still sitting in the pension schemes to which you contributed, unless you got a refund because you had under 2 years' service or under 30 days if in a Group Personal Pension Plan (and you should know if that was the case). .......

excellent - a great starting point.

5aq1b

xylophone wrote: »

For whom did you work and for how long?
.

thanks, i've worked for the NHS and have worked for clydesdale bank and a couple major blue chip companies.

NHS was 6 mths. Clydesdale bank was a year and the blue chips were 18-24 mths

PensionTech

Ah ok. Based on those timescales then, you might not have been entitled to preserved benefits (depending on what kind of pensions you had in the non-NHS schemes). That means that you would have had to take a refund of your contributions, less tax and NI-related deductions, or transfer the benefits elsewhere.

As you're not sure what's happened to the benefits, I think we can safely assume that you haven't made that decision. So a couple of things might have happened.
1. They might have written to an old address to ask you what you wanted to do with your benefits, and on receiving no response, sent a refund cheque. In this case, it presumably wouldn't have been cashed, and you would be able to get them to send a replacement. You might even be able to get them to transfer into your personal pension when you get it set up, meaning that you still get the benefit of whatever employer contributions were paid - although the provider/administrator doesn't have to do that and can force a refund.
2. They might have done the same thing, but on forcing the refund, paid a refund of £0. This could happen if you contributed to the scheme via Salary Sacrifice (you give up some of your salary instead of paying pension contributions; your employer pays the sacrificed salary into the scheme as though it were an employer contribution. That means that the employee contributions were technically £0 so your refund would be £0.) In this case, unfortunately, the money's gone.
3. They might have just hung onto your benefits, waiting for an answer. In this case, you should be able to get in touch and ask them to refund your benefits - or to transfer them to your new personal pension when you get it set up.
4. They might have paid a refund to you and you've forgotten or didn't notice (it is possible!).
5. You might have been entitled to preserved benefits anyway for various reasons, in which case the benefits sit in the scheme until you retire (or transfer them elsewhere) as previously described.

The only way to know for sure is to contact the providers/administrators.

atush

Yes, you really should have transferred the NHS pension somewhere else at the time as that one has to be refunded. And it was wort a lot more if you had transferred as when you get a return of your contributions then you have to pay both income tax and Nics on it so it can be worth a fraction of what was in your pot/your transfer value.

So get on to your old employers pronto.

5aq1b

Thanks for the helpful replies. I'll definitely get on to this. Is there anything in particular I should be asking for from my previous employers?

atush

Call HR and ask for the details of the pension administrator.

Give them your new address, and ask for details on your pensions.