Unknown contracted out period giving reduction to single state pension forecast

clivep

So HMRC tell me my wife was contracted out 78-79 and 79-80.

NHS pensions say she's eligible for a pension based on employment from 4/9/72 - 1/5/80 a total of 7 years 240 days. The address they had for her was the house we left in July 1984 so not even our previous one. They've updated her current address and provided her pension reference no. They say to leave it 14 days for the address to get updated then register on the NHS Total Rewards Statement website when details of the pension can be viewed. She can then send in the AW8P claim form for the deferred pension and she'll then start receiving a monthly pension together with a lump sum and the arrears.

The annoying thing is the arrears will be payable in this tax year when she will be a basic rate taxpayer due to the UFPLS she is in the process of taking. She had not used her allowances in the last few years so if the pension had been paid at the correct time then there would not have been any tax deducted. Seems a bit unfair that she'll lose 20% of the arrears to tax.

Thanks again for the posts assisting me with this.

xylophone

Seems a bit unfair that she'll lose 20% of the arrears to tax.

See
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/manuals/eimanual/EIM74103.htm

gadgetmind

brewerdave wrote: »

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 !!!

And did you?

My wife is now in a Local Government Pension Scheme, and the web site is very clear with all relevant information provided. We know exactly what she's paying, and we can track her pension entitlement on the same spreadsheet on which we track her hours and enhancements to check her pay is correct.

If their figures differ from ours by even a penny later on, I've got all the data to back up my number.

I find it unsettling that some people might be so trusting as to not keep their own records and at least have their own outline figures and projections.

clivep

xylophone wrote: »

See
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/manuals/eimanual/EIM74103.htm

Excellent news, thanks for the link Xylophone.

The guy at HMRC that I spoke to today knew nothing about this.

clivep

gadgetmind wrote: »

And did you?

My wife is now in a Local Government Pension Scheme, and the web site is very clear with all relevant information provided. We know exactly what she's paying, and we can track her pension entitlement on the same spreadsheet on which we track her hours and enhancements to check her pay is correct.

If their figures differ from ours by even a penny later on, I've got all the data to back up my number.

I find it unsettling that some people might be so trusting as to not keep their own records and at least have their own outline figures and projections.

If my wife's NHS employment had been in recent years then I would certainly have kept track. The facilities to do this online were obviously not available to do this back in 1980. To my wife's knowledge she never received any documentation about her NHS pension back then so we had no idea that we needed to notify anyone about a change of address after NHS employment ended or indeed where such notification should have been sent to.

One would have thought that NHS pensions would have access to current addresses (from HMRC records maybe?) for those approaching pensionable age.

I've discussed this with my neighbour. His wife is now 67 and had worked numerous years in the NHS ending in about 1975. He had no idea that she should be getting a NHS pension as well as her state pension. On phoning NHS Pensions it transpired that they couldn't find her records so he's having to write in to provide as much info as he can.

I wonder how many NHS pensions go unclaimed?

hyubh

clivep wrote: »

One would have thought that NHS pensions would have access to current addresses (from HMRC records maybe?) for those approaching pensionable age.

I wouldn't, and frankly that's a good thing too...

I've discussed this with my neighbour. His wife is now 67 and had worked numerous years in the NHS ending in about 1975. He had no idea that she should be getting a NHS pension as well as her state pension.

Doh!

I wonder how many NHS pensions go unclaimed?

One might also wonder whether they then get what they deserve...

brewerdave

gadgetmind wrote: »

And did you?

My wife is now in a Local Government Pension Scheme, and the web site is very clear with all relevant information provided. We know exactly what she's paying, and we can track her pension entitlement on the same spreadsheet on which we track her hours and enhancements to check her pay is correct.

If their figures differ from ours by even a penny later on, I've got all the data to back up my number.

I find it unsettling that some people might be so trusting as to not keep their own records and at least have their own outline figures and projections.

Yes - we did - I've incorporated the expected monthly pension payment into my spreadsheets!:)
I just find it incredible that the timescales to produce a projection are sooooo long ! Altho' they have obviously improved a bit -the hospital trust policy has been altered recently to reduce the notice required for retirement from 6 months .......to 5 months:rotfl:
As to your subsequent point re own records/projections etc, unfortunately not everyone is as mathematically aware as most of the posters on this forum seem to be

clivep

Just an update:

I was not able to register on the Govenment Gateway to get online access to the NHS Total Reward Statement after 14 days as apparently our current address the NHS now holds did not correctly get passed through to the Gateway which is still holding the old address. They say nothing can be done about this until a new statement is produced in September with the correct address which will port through to the Gateway following which I can register!

Consequently they sent me a manual Total Rewards Statement. This shows:
7 years 240 days reckonable membership from 4/9/1972 - 1/5/1980 which gives a lump sum of £5,089.85 and a pension of £1,696.60 per annum from the age of 60.
The calculation was based on pay of £4,496.22 updated to 1/5/1980.

This agrees with the State Pension Forecast which showed two years contracted out in 1978-1979 and 1979-1980.

My wife actually continued working for the NHS from 2/5/1980 until early 1985 but this was part time so presumably in those days it was not pensionable. I've spoken with the local NHS trust and they can't find any details of this period of her employment. The fact that her state pension forecast is not showing these years as contracted-out would support the view that they were not NHS pensionable.

I've got all my payslips and P14s since I started work but my wife was not quite so meticulous. I suppose I can forgive her as she would only have been 18 when she should have been given enrollment details for her NHS pension.

Her deferred NHS pension has now been applied for and they are currently quoting a 30 day turnaround. As we've just received her UFPLS for the year to utilise her tax allowance then the pension (other than the lump sum) will all get taxed at 20%. We'll then need to write to HMRC to get them to spread the payments back over the relevant years and recalculate liability.