Unknown contracted out period giving reduction to single state pension forecast

clivep

So I've just got through my wife's pension forecast which shows 36 qualifying years. She's 61 so will be getting the single state pension when she reaches state retirement age in about 4 1/2 years.

The forecast shows a reduction of about £5 per week due to a contracted out period but gives no further details. I can only guess that this relates to her NHS employment in the dim and distant past. I'll try phoning the helpline on Monday to try and get details of when she was contracted out.

Presumably if she's been contracted out then there may be a pension floating about but we've not heard about it over the past few decades.

I seem to remember something about being able to cash in a pension that you've only been contributing to for a short while (up to two years maybe?). If this is correct then maybe my wife did this in her early working life which would explain things.

clivep

Having just looked at a NHS Leaving Early documents it appears that for a period of employment of less than 2 years then a refund of contributions is indeed possible. However, it says that the payout will have a deduction for "your share of the National Insurance contributions which must be paid to secure your rights in the State Second Pension Scheme (S2P) during your period of NHS Scheme membership" and for income tax.

If she did take a refund of contributions then surely she should have been contracted back in for this period and so the pension forecast should not show the reduction?

t0rt0ise

You can ask via the NHS pensions website for information about an old pension. A google search will find the site.


And yes, if she took a refund then she wasn't contracted out for those years.

xylophone

She may have a deferred pension in the scheme in which case it could have been payable when she was 60?

She may not have received regular statements - I know of at least one scheme where early leavers were simply told to keep the scheme advised of any change of address and make contact with the Administrator at Scheme Pension Age!

http://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/Pensions/2672.aspx

Keep_pedalling

xylophone wrote: »

She may have a deferred pension in the scheme in which case it could have been payable when she was 60?

She may not have received regular statements - I know of at least one scheme where early leavers were simply told to keep the scheme advised of any change of address and make contact with the Administrator at Scheme Pension Age!

http://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/Pensions/2672.aspx

It would have been payable at 60, but as I found out last year it does not happen automatically you have to apply for it. My main pension is with BT and I got sent all the relevant documentenation 6 months before my 60th, and was expecting the same for my tiny NHS pension, but this did not happen until I requested it.

clivep

Many thanks for the replies.

After training and qualifying as a SRN, my wife worked in intensive care for a while then did 18 months to qualify as a midwife. She subsequently worked for periods in two local NHS hospitals. This all happened over 30 years ago and we have not heard anything about any pension since.

As we've no documentation about any pension we certainly have not notified them of any change of addresses than have happened in the intervening years.

I'd better get in touch with the administrator as it would appear likely that there should indeed be a pension payable.

brewerdave

The NHS are not good at supplying info on pensions.My wife has been working in the NHS for 21 years and has been a member of the pension for the last 19 years. We asked for a statement of expected pension last year (she is over 60 but still working) -the reply was basically, look at the website !!! All she has ever had is info. on contribution rates when they are going up !!!

jamesd

Given her situation a refund probably wouldn't be the best approach. Instead, waiting for the flat rate to start then paying voluntary self-employed contributions for her self-employment of selling things on ebay occasionally. Or at probably greater cost, just buying years outright. Unless she's working still, which would just take care of it automatically if she's an employee paying NI. Given that the accrual rate after the flat rate comes in now looks to be in excess of £5 per year of contributions she'd easily have time to catch up on a £5 shortfall.

However, that all assumes that her state pension total will be less than the full flat rate, which is what I assume you meant by single state pension. If it's more than the flat rate level then doing that voluntary contributing would add nothing and be a waste of money.

Deneb

brewerdave wrote: »

The NHS are not good at supplying info on pensions.My wife has been working in the NHS for 21 years and has been a member of the pension for the last 19 years. We asked for a statement of expected pension last year (she is over 60 but still working) -the reply was basically, look at the website !!! All she has ever had is info. on contribution rates when they are going up !!!

My wife worked a similar length of time in the NHS and only received one unsolicited pension statement, which I think was connected to the original choice exercise in or around 2008.

It is possible to apply for a pension estimate via a form that can be found on the NHS Pensions website, which has to be printed off, completed and submitted to the local pensions administrator. I can't remember the form name or number now, but my wife applied last year and it took about 5 months before she received the estimate! They are not quick.

xylophone

I thought that the original question reminded me of a previous post and I have now found it

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/66346004#Comment_66346004

Bigmondy never did reveal whether it was "a yacht or a ferry ticket" he will be buying with it.

I think it must have been a yacht and he was fearful of too many of us queuing up to crew for him...:rotfl:

brewerdave

Deneb wrote: »

My wife worked a similar length of time in the NHS and only received one unsolicited pension statement, which I think was connected to the original choice exercise in or around 2008.

It is possible to apply for a pension estimate via a form that can be found on the NHS Pensions website, which has to be printed off, completed and submitted to the local pensions administrator. I can't remember the form name or number now, but my wife applied last year and it took about 5 months before she received the estimate! They are not quick.

.....One of the few answers we got from my wife's local NHS pensions person was that they required 6 months notice of her retirement in order to calculate/put her pension in payment :rotfl:Obviously haven't got enuf beads on their abacus !!!