Closing pension

molerat

timeism0ney wrote: »

No, that's the thing, I didn't opt in. That's why I'm annoyed.

But no doubt you would have been given the option to opt out

PeacefulWaters

timeism0ney wrote: »

No, that's the thing, I didn't opt in. That's why I'm annoyed.

It's amazing what irrelevances you can choose to get annoyed about.

Get the money transferred to another active pension and the forget about it.

Retirement might seem a long way off but life is way too short to get annoyed over something you had a chance to opt out of.

timeism0ney

In the scheme of things, you are probably right, that it's not worth getting annoyed about. But it does annoy me that I have to spend my time getting this zombie account right. It's another entry in my long todo list of people I have to report change of address to.

Frankly, it did feel a bit like a "some dodgy scammer" letter to me, because I never opted for any kind of pension, and it was so close to the end of my part-time and temporary contract with the given employer that it just seemed bizarre! I was sure it was a mistake and didn't get round to responding, due to the house move.

Not being able to end this agreement until I'm 55 is creepy. All for 11 pounds that no one cares about. I don't think that's right at all. But if they were genuinely required to do this by law then that explains it, I guess. As hyubh says they would probably prefer to get rid of my 11 pounds zombie account too, if only they could.

Malthusian

Not being able to end this agreement until I'm 55 is creepy.

You can end it, just ask them to transfer it to another pension plan.

Not sure I would bother, though. The easiest / laziest option would be to simply leave it where it is until you turn 55 then ask them to pay it to you as a lump sum.

The entire point of the "auto-enrolment" law is to get people like you to sign up for a pension without realising, as you did. Since the man from the Pru who would go door-to-door and persuade people to sign up for monthly pension plans is gone, and the final salary schemes are all closed, and the idea that the State can provide a comfortable retirement for everyone is long dead, the government decided it was the best way to "nudge" (eurgh) people into having some pension savings when they came to retire.

JoeCrystal

Malthusian wrote: »

The entire point of the "auto-enrolment" law is to get people like you to sign up for a pension without realising, as you did. Since the man from the Pru who would go door-to-door and persuade people to sign up for monthly pension plans is gone, and the final salary schemes are all closed, and the idea that the State can provide a comfortable retirement for everyone is long dead, the government decided it was the best way to "nudge" (eurgh) people into having some pension savings when they came to retire.

And arguably, it is working. I believe that lot of people are paying into a pension scheme for first time at my workplace. My only annoyance with the auto-enrolment is a low percentage that the Employer have to contribute in the future when I think it should be higher..

timeism0ney

Well, it worked to get me a zombie account and to keep a job of the clerk who is administering it, I guess. But I'm not in a position to use it in any meaningful way.

Malthusian

The government would say that if a few million people who never pay attention to their finances end up with a more comfortable retirement because they built up a 50-100k pension fund without realising it, then it is worth the minor inconvenience to you :cool2:

Plus the £11 has forced you to come here and ask questions about pensions which may cause you to think about your retirement plans later down the line, so if that happens it's done its job as well.

No-one is being employed just to look after your £11. I'm surprised I need to point this out to someone who is probably highly IT-literate (based on the level of your paranoia about your personal data security) but pension administration is mostly done by computers and looking after 1,000,001 pension plans requires the same number of staff as 1,000,000.

bigadaj

Malthusian wrote: »

The government would say that if a few million people who never pay attention to their finances end up with a more comfortable retirement because they built up a 50-100k pension fund without realising it, then it is worth the minor inconvenience to you :cool2:

Plus the £11 has forced you to come here and ask questions about pensions which may cause you to think about your retirement plans later down the line, so if that happens it's done its job as well.

No-one is being employed just to look after your £11. I'm surprised I need to point this out to someone who is probably highly IT-literate (based on the level of your paranoia about your personal data security) but pension administration is mostly done by computers and looking after 1,000,001 pension plans requires the same number of staff as 1,000,000.

Agree, but not coincidentally more widespread and better pensions should mean that pensioners will be less reliant on means tested benefits, hopefully reducing the bill to the government. The new state pension is obviously designed to keep people above means tested levels, but given that people could end up with less than a third of the maximum level with a sparse NI record, then passive coercion seems like a minor evil.

timeism0ney

Malthusian wrote: »

No-one is being employed just to look after your £11. I'm surprised I need to point this out to...

Well the call I made to ask to close this account (which they said they can't do) is probably worth more than £11 already. If I carried on to make a complaint, then again it's someone's time... Providing bad customer experience is not cheap.

I still can't understand how it happened, I wasn't supposed to be entitled to anything as part of this contract, it was an hourly paid, part time, temporary short term thing that came to an end a month after this auto-enrolment happened. There's no chance in hell for me to accumulate a 50k pension fund, but yes of course I wouldn't mind being minor inconvenienced if it were even remotely possible.

greenglide

If I carried on to make a complaint, then again it's someone's time...

Complaining to the pension company is pointless - they will have done what the the employer told them to.

I still can't understand how it happened, I wasn't supposed to be entitled to anything as part of this contract, it was an hourly paid, part time, temporary short term thing that came to an end a month after this auto-enrolment happened.

It does sound as if the employer was being "generous" and was not legally obliged to auto-enroll you as they could have deferred your enrolment such that your contract ended first.

I would really hope that if your contract handnt ended you would have stayed in the scheme.

There's no chance in hell for me to accumulate a 50k pension fund, but yes of course I wouldn't mind being minor inconvenienced if it were even remotely possible.

Remember that the rate that the employer must pay into auto-enrolment schemes will have increased to 3% of earnings. Are you saying that taking into account the tax relief and the employer contributions as well as your own contributions you would not expect to achieve this sort of amount (taking into account investment gains as well) over your whole working life?