Pension Questions

johnsmithy

Hello

I resigned from my job last year but foolishly, I have misplaced my pension statement which showed information in regards to my question.

My questions are:

1. Can I write to my pension provider and ask them for a statement as I've heard you can get charged or penalised for receiving a statement outside of the normal once-a-year, through the post statement. I need to know the information as I need to plan for my future and I don't know what has happened to the document.

2. As a general rule, when you start a job, some say you should save half your age for the pension, so as I am 34, I should save 17% and then account for this for each passing year, so when I get to 35, it would be 17.5% etc. Would this be a good benchmark for me to use?

Thanks for any help.

quotememiserable

1. You won't be penalised, but you may be charged. I'd be surprised if anyone charged to re-issue the last annual statement, and these days they can probably give you a login to look online for yourself.

2. That rule is about setting an amount to pay for life. It you start at 34, always pay 17%. The point is that the earlier you start, the less you need to pay in each year.

Linton

1) No harm in asking. I would have thought they at least could send you a duplicate of the one you lost.

2) Half your age isnt a benchmark. Its just a simple calculation to get you into the right order of magnitude. Some people appear to think that just putting in say 3% is going to provide a comfortable retirement.

A reasonable starting point is to put in as much as is necessary to get the maximum employers contribution. Suggest you put together a budget/ financial plan...

- You need to put together sufficient cash savings for emergencies such as unemployment. Perhaps 6 months living expenses
- You need to live an acceptable but not too luxurious life style.
- You may be saving to for a house deposit or similar large expenditures.
- You need to put as much as possible into pensions.

sangie595

Linton wrote: »

1)

- You need to put together sufficient cash savings for emergencies such as unemployment. Perhaps 6 months living expenses
- You need to live an acceptable but not too luxurious life style.
.

I suspect that the advice here is a little late for the OP - they are unemployed!

johnsmithy

I get by on my JSA, just about.

Thanks for your help everyone. I have decided to use just half my age as a benchmark for percentage for pension.

Also, I think its bad to charge for a copy of your pension statement. I can't touch my pension anyways as I am unemployed as I risk considerable penalties and I'm only 34 years old, so taking out my pension now would be silly and also you can only take out the pension in special situations.

I sometimes question the wisdom of a pension - I can see pros and cons to it tbh.

PensionTech

Also, I think its bad to charge for a copy of your pension statement.

It depends what you're asking for. If you ask for a copy of a statement that has already been sent to you, I would be very surprised if any company tried to charge for it. You would be able to access that under the DPA anyway via a subject access request (which they could admittedly charge a little for, but no more than £10 or so), as it's something on their records that concerns you, so they wouldn't really have a leg to stand on. I think you're getting confused between a simple re-sending of an old statement, and some different things that pensions administrators might charge for:
- revaluing and projected benefits to different dates more than once a year. Once I was asked for nine statements for the same member, all at once; one at age 60 (normal retirement age), then two (one based on reduced early retirement, one based on unreduced retirement in case the member was able to take voluntary redundancy) at every age between 56 and 59 inclusive. In those cases, you can see why we might charge. The administrators tend to be paid by the scheme according to a contract that specifies how much work they are required to do per member. These are often the statutory minimum, i.e. one statement a year if requested (and of course an assumption will be made about how many members will make requests), so effectively the scheme isn't paying for any additional quotations, and the administrator is entitled to be compensated for their work by the member instead.
- calculating transfer values. These have to be done by actuaries, or using actuarial software or proformas, and are messy and long-winded and expensive. The factors change every month, the calculations can take a long time to be finalised if they have to be passed between departments/companies (e.g. if the actuary has to calculate it and pass the figures back to the administrator), and each quotation is guaranteed for three months, with another three months allowed for the transfer itself. Given the long guarantee period, it's hard to argue that members really need these more than once a year, and they are certainly expensive to produce - so they are limited to one free one every year, and they can pay for additional ones if absolutely required.

Neither of these scenarios apply to you. In fact, as your scheme is required by law to give you a statement of benefits upon request (provided you haven't asked for one within the last 12 months), you could (if you want) just ask for an up-to-date statement to be sent instead of a copy of your old statement, and it'll definitely be free. The statement you got upon leaving last year is something they're required to send you automatically under an entirely different set of regulations, so that doesn't count as a statement of benefits issued on request within the last 12 months.

dunstonh

1. Can I write to my pension provider and ask them for a statement as I've heard you can get charged or penalised for receiving a statement outside of the normal once-a-year, through the post statement. I need to know the information as I need to plan for my future and I don't know what has happened to the document.

That only applies to occupational pensions. Auto-enrolment or group personal pensions rarely have any charge in that respect.

2. As a general rule, when you start a job, some say you should save half your age for the pension, so as I am 34, I should save 17% and then account for this for each passing year, so when I get to 35, it would be 17.5% etc. Would this be a good benchmark for me to use?

That is not what the quick and dirty guide is. It is half your age at the point of starting a pension. If you already have provision then it could be less. Although if you plan to retire earlier than state pension age, then it will be more. If you plan to have a bit more than half your earned income in retirement, then its more. If you plan to invest in low risk assets then its more.

Also, I think its bad to charge for a copy of your pension statement. I can't touch my pension anyways as I am unemployed as I risk considerable penalties and I'm only 34 years old, so taking out my pension now would be silly and also you can only take out the pension in special situations.

I sometimes question the wisdom of a pension - I can see pros and cons to it tbh.

Do they actually charge? You seem to be complaining about a charge that probably doesnt even exist.
The reason the charge exists on occupational schemes is that an administrator has to do the work and the administrator is paid explicitly by the employer to do a job. If you get difficult employees who contact the administrator frequently, then someone has to pay them. So, the best option is to charge the person creating the work. A calculation can be time consuming. Whereas a reissue of an existing document is easy and rarely gets charged

If you are questioning the wisdom of a pension then it means you do not understand it.

xylophone

Deferred Civil Service Pension?

http://www.civilservicepensionscheme.org.uk/members/deferred/information-for-deferred-members/