Pension Advice

gl1tangerine

Hi, I have been looking into my parents pensions recently and have been completely overwhelmed by the mass of different information available out there and wondered if anyone could help put this into plain English and explain what it all means?

My Father's statement:-

Retirement Pension £3,347.52 a year

Specified Pension Commencement Lump Sum £8,097.73

Spouse Pension £2,116.68 a year

The above benefits include any transferred-in benefits but exclude any additional voluntary contributions you may have made.

The figures quoted include a Guaranteed Minimum Pension (GMP) which is subject to verification by Her Majesty's Revenue & Customs (HMRC). The GMP will be checked before it becomes payable

He is 63 at the moment and is struggling financially, could he claim any of that now or is he stuck hoping he makes it to 65?

My Mother, who passed away last year, also had a pension with the same company (as they worked together) and apparently it was transferred when she left in 1987 to somewhere called NFC. I have tried searching for this but can only find links to the national freight consortium but she worked for Birds Eye/Walls so I have no idea why it would have been transferred to that.

Thanks to anyone who can help, I'm literally pulling my hair out.

mgdavid

is your father still working?
working for this same company?
or is he a Deferred member of this defined benefit scheme?
Have you a copy (or access to a copy, online for instance) of the Scheme Rules?
When is the scheme's Normal retirement date (NRD)?
If he takes the benefits at NRD he will get a tax-free lump sum of £8097.73 and an annual pension of £3347.52.
The widow's pension doesn't apply as she has pre-deceased.
He probably can take the benefits now but there will be a pro-rata reduction for each year earlier than the NRD, typically 5% per year.

Can't comment on the NFC bit, sorry.

Has he checked up on how much State pension he will get?

gl1tangerine

He hasn't worked for several years now and he left the company his pension is with approx 15 years ago. It is a deferred pension and the company (Unilever) NRD is 65.

Thanks for clearing up the first part, I came to the same conclusion but wanted to make sure I had the right info before updating my Dad.

gl1tangerine

Has he checked up on how much State pension he will get?

He has been receiving a pension credit for about a year now so I'm not really sure.

xylophone

Your father will reach state pension age in 2016/17 so in the new state pension arrangement.

He can obtain a statement here https://www.gov.uk/government/news/millions-more-offered-free-pension-statement

Your father is a deferred member of a COSR Pension Scheme.

See also http://www.myupfpension.co.uk/final_salary/deferred/at_a_glance

It would appear that with Trustee consent, pensions may be paid from age 55, presumably with actuarial reduction.


Does your father have a statement of deferred benefits from when he left the company?

This should show his pre 88 GMP his post 88 GMP and the excess.

Does he have a scheme booklet? If so, does it indicate whether fixed or full rate is used to revalue GMP in deferment?

See http://www.barnett-waddingham.co.uk/comment-insight/blog/2014/08/18/what-is-a-gmp/

http://www.barnett-waddingham.co.uk/comment-insight/blog/2012/07/24/revaluation-for-early-leavers/

Once a pension comes into payment, after GMP age, the administrator will write and confirm the split of revalued pre and post 88 GMP and the revalued excess.

The company has no responsibility for paying any increases on pre 88 GMP or anything above 3% on post 88 GMP.

Such increases might have been paid with the state pension but where a pension has been increased by fixed rate in deferment, this tends to make the COD so high that there is no pre 97 additional state pension payable for a number of years.

Under the new state system, the payment of GMP increases by the state will come to an end - it will be up to individual schemes to decide how they will manage the transition.

If your father is permitted to take his pension early, it might be only the revalued excess and unrevalued GMP as Unilever are only bound to pay the GMP from GMP age (still 65 for men) - there would then be a step up at GMP age.

Your father may wish to contact the Administrators regarding his position re early pension.

With regard to your mother, I cannot quite understand why her pension did not remain with Unilever - perhaps she transferred out to a S32 policy with an insurance company? I am wondering whether NFC might have been the name of an insurance company?

gl1tangerine

Thanks for that info.... lots to read there so I think I better leave it till tomorrow when I'm slightly more conscious lol

With regards to Mum's pension all it says is..

With regard to your late wife, Mrs X, she no longer has any liability under the fund as she transferred from Unilever Superannuation Fund on 05 September 1987 to NFC Pension Fund due to company sale.

They both had practically zero knowledge or understanding of pensions and finances in general so I know there is no way Mum or Dad would have had the required knowledge to do something like that. (transfer)

sandsy

gl1tangerine wrote: »

My Mother, who passed away last year, also had a pension with the same company (as they worked together) and apparently it was transferred when she left in 1987 to somewhere called NFC. I have tried searching for this but can only find links to the national freight consortium but she worked for Birds Eye/Walls so I have no idea why it would have been transferred to that.

Thanks to anyone who can help, I'm literally pulling my hair out.

A bit of Googling shows that National Freight Consortium might be right if you read this article:


http://archive.commercialmotor.com/article/16th-august-1986/14/transport-workers-slam-fleet-sale


It then looks like NFC merged with Ocean and subsequently became part of Exel.


But both the Ocean and Exel DB schemes now appear to be part of the DHL Group Retirement Plan:


https://mypension.dhl.co.uk/Resources/Client/DHL/MyPension/Templates/PublicPage.aspx?DocID=3&

audi321

My advice would be to:

a) Try and trace your mothers pension via the route discovered above and see if they owe money to your dad given her death last year.

b) Speak to Unilever about taking his deferred pension early.

With a bit of luck both these options will result in extra cash getting to your dad in due course.

xylophone

From the links above, although the article describes "sub contracting" and "the sale of a fleet of vehicles", presumably the fleet was owned by a wholly owned subsidiary of Birds Eye Walls (itself wholly owned by Unilever), and it was the fleet owning company that was sold to National Freight Corporation.

It would seem that the pensions of those employed by the fleet owning company (previously members of the Unilever Scheme through the Birds Eye Walls link). transferred to the NFC Scheme.

Through a series of takeovers and mergers, NFC and its pension Scheme ended up with DHL.

Looking at the DHL site,

"The DHL Group Retirement Plan is the company sponsored pension plan for UK employees of the DHL group of companies. The Plan provides retirement and life assurance benefits for its members. It is comprised of eight separate sections: seven Defined Benefit sections (Exel, Ocean), ", it would seem that your mother, like your father, may have ended up as a deferred pensioner of a Defined Benefits Scheme.

It is possible that there may be some widower's pension or a lump sum death benefit payable to your father?

The DHL site links to

"Email: dhl.uk.pensions@dhl.com

Phone: 01234 833320

Write to: DHL Pensions, The Merton Centre, 45 St Peter’s Street, Bedford MK40 2UB

Please include your full name and membership number on all correspondence."

I take it that there are no annual statements of deferred benefits among your late mother's papers which might provide the information requested above?

If not, write to DHL pensions enclosing a copy of the letter you have had from
Unilever and see where that takes you.

(I have to say I find the wording of the letter rather odd. It is the Scheme that has no liability - your mother has no benefits...)

xylophone

I have had another thought about this matter.

You said that your father is on pension credit - you may wish to check how drawing his own pension and/or receiving anything due from your late mother's pension might interact with this benefit.



See http://www.ageuk.org.uk/Documents/EN-GB/Factsheets/FS48_Pension_Credit_fcs.pdf?dtrk=true

PC for a single pensioner increases to £151.20 a week in April.

mgdavid

sandsy wrote: »

.........It then looks like NFC merged with Ocean and subsequently became part of Exel.

But both the Ocean and Exel DB schemes now appear to be part of the DHL Group Retirement Plan:...........

sandsy is spot-on; I have an Ocean DB pension from back in the eighties that travelled exactly this route. The good news is that DHL are owned by Deutsche Post and generally the Germans take a very responsible view of the pensions that they operate and pay. In my experience the Bedford admin people are efficient and helpful.