COPE how do you know if you will get this when you retire

shaun1952

Hi , my wife officially retires from work at the end of February 2018 .

She has had her Government pension forecast with is just below the maximum ,even though she has fully paid up for 44 years , this is about £2 per week down from the full pension.. They say she is entitled to COPE from her NHS pension scheme to make up the deficit because she opted out for around 10 years .
Can anyone explain to me how this works , she is already getting her NHS pension from when she was 60 ..she thought that was the full amount she would receive throughout her retirement including he official government retirement age .
Does this mean she may actually be entitled to an increase on this NHS pension via COPE ? .
Would the NHS have a record of this and be able to give her , if any, an idea of how much this will increase .

Many thanks , Shaun

Stubod

..I think the quoted "COPE" is what they, (Pensions), "think / predict" what you should get based on your contracted out period. ie if you are already getting it via the NHS pension scheme then you won't get any more...(I think)..

Silvertabby

It's complicated, but the theory is that your wife's COPE is indeed being paid with her NHS pension.

One way of looking at it is that she has been receiving this amount since she started to draw her NHS pension instead of having to wait until she was able to draw her State pension.

OldMusicGuy

Yes, that's it. You don't get the COPE amount. It is the estimate of what the government thinks is the equivalent of the additional State Pension you would have got if you had not been contracted out (see https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/state-pension-fact-sheets/contracting-out-and-why-we-may-have-included-a-contracted-out-pension-equivalent-cope-amount-when-you-used-the-online-service).

It is attempting to explain why some people may not get the full new flat rate pension because they were contracted out and paid less NI than those that were not contracted out. So the pension they have should be making up the shortfall.

xylophone

Your wife's NHS pension already includes the COPE.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/state-pension-fact-sheets/contracting-out-and-why-we-may-have-included-a-contracted-out-pension-equivalent-cope-amount-when-you-used-the-online-service

Did your wife work for NHS between 1978 and 1997 and in consequence have a GMP?

See section on NHS Pension Increase in links below.

https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/sites/default/files/2017-05/Pensioners%20Newsletter%202017%20%28V2%29-%20Online%20-%2005.2017.pdf

https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/sites/default/files/2017-06/Retirement%20Guide%20%28V23%29%20-%2006.2017%20.pdf

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-one-step-closer-to-introducing-new-state-pension-this-year

Re SP increase - see

https://www.gov.uk/new-state-pension

AnotherJoe

Sorry to dissapoint Shaun but as everyone else has said the COPE amount will be already included in her NHS pension though it likely won’t be seen as a separate amount in there. In any case there’s no more money coming !

Unfortunately putting down the COPE amount leads many people to think there will be a second payment made under this name but all it is is a guesstimate of whatever the pension is from the provider you used when you contracted out.

molerat

AnotherJoe wrote: »

Sorry to dissapoint Shaun but as everyone else has said the COPE amount will be already included in her NHS pension though it likely won’t be seen as a separate amount in there. In any case there’s no more money coming !

Unfortunately putting down the COPE amount leads many people to think there will be a second payment made under this name but all it is is a guesstimate of whatever the pension is from the provider you used when you contracted out.

Confusion Of Proportions Enormous