State Contracted Out Pension - Claim Advice

bightaylor

Hello Everyone,

I am a 52 year old married male with a Final Salary Scheme Pension which is fully paid up and frozen. I am due to retire in next few months from my current employer, and this pension will be thawed so to speak and I will claim it.

Back in about 1986, I was advised my a so called friend to opt out of the FSS and take out a State Contracted Out Extra Retirement Programme with a company now called Sanlam.

Luckily, after about 16 months, I saw the light, and opted back into the FSS.

I believe I was badly advised back in the 1980's and I have heard that lots of my colleagues who did something similar have made claims and received compensation from Sanlam.

Does anyone have experiance on how to do this and how successful claims have been. The value of the Sanlam pension is £5500.

Many Thanks......................Howard

mgdavid

bightaylor wrote: »

Hello Everyone,

I am a 52 year old married male with a Final Salary Scheme Pension which is fully paid up and frozen. I am due to retire in next few months from my current employer, and this pension will be thawed so to speak and I will claim it.
.......

are you sure? in the vast majority of cases one has to be 55 to commence taking a pension.

bightaylor

Definately. Benefits of the Police Pension Scheme.

hyubh

bightaylor wrote: »

Benefits of the Police Pension Scheme.

Can you clarify - you've said the pension has been 'frozen'. By this, do you mean you are currently a deferred member? If so, your normal pension age in the PPS is 60 - retiring from around 50 requires you to be an active member.

If however you are in fact currently a serving officer, then I'm not sure having opted out for 16 months is going to make a difference, unless you haven't got the 30 years maximum reckonable service. If you got to 30 years anyway, then actually, being out for a bit actually gave you something else.

xylophone

I am a 52 year old married male with a Final Salary Scheme Pension which is fully paid up and frozen

Do you mean that you left the Police Force with a deferred ( not frozen) DB pension?

http://www.polfed.org/documents/PPS_1987_-_members_guide_(2006).pdf

Silvertabby

A deferred pension is payable from age 60. It may be paid earlier if you become permanently disabled from performing the ordinary duties of a police officer.

If you leave before the age of 50 with at least 25 years service, then your deferred
pension will be paid from age 50

Back in about 1986, I was advised my a so called friend to opt out of the FSS and take out a State Contracted Out Extra Retirement Programme with a company now called Sanlam.

Luckily, after about 16 months, I saw the light, and opted back into the FSS.

I believe I was badly advised back in the 1980's and I have heard that lots of my colleagues who did something similar have made claims and received compensation from Sanlam. Posted by bightaylor

This was a huge problem in the 1980s, with private pension providers pursuading members of final salary schemes to opt out and pay into their scheme instead. I know hindsight is a wonderful thing, but this should have been dealt with in the 1990s. Am I right in thinking that your colleagues were still serving when they complained? If so, their compensation would have been paid into the Police Pension scheme with a view to restoring their level of Police pension benefits to what they would have been had they not opted out. If you had already left the Police service by then, then I fear you may have missed the boat. Do you still have access to the Police Union? They will be your best first point of call.