What happened to SERPS money?

thewinelake

I contracted out of SERPs when it was the fashionable thing to do. It looks like I qualify for max pension, so it would appear that the missing money didn't matter and I guess it automatically cancelled. But I wonder what happened to the money that went to a private pension company (that I can't remember the name of!)?

LHW99

The money would have gone into a pension organised by whatever company you worked for at the time.
Your NI record will say which years you were contracted out for, so look back at the companies you worked for then. It may be rolled into a DB pension of some sort.

dunstonh

Did you actually contract out through a personal pension?

An awful lot of people who thought they contracted out through a personal pension and actually went through the process of filling out the forms and got the pension set up found that not a single rebate was paid to the pension. Either because they were self-employed, company directors of own company earning to the primary threshold (with divs on top) or they were members of a contracted out occupational pension (which trumps contracting out to a personal pension). Effectively, they put the bucket under the tap but the tap was never turned on.

You can use the pension tracing service
https://www.gov.uk/find-pension-contact-details

thewinelake

OK, It was about 30 years ago, so my memory is vague. However, the Company that I've worked for since 1992 has never had a company pension scheme, so I guess I would have had to set up my own.

Where can I find my NI record?

OK - I found it, and it just says "Full Year" for every year apart from when I was at University in the late 80's (strangely it says full year for when I was at school...)

vacheron

thewinelake wrote: »

OK, It was about 30 years ago, so my memory is vague. However, the Company that I've worked for since 1992 has never had a company pension scheme, so I guess I would have had to set up my own.

Where can I find my NI record?

OK - I found it, and it just says "Full Year" for every year apart from when I was at University in the late 80's (strangely it says full year for when I was at school...)

I noticed this too.

Apparently Further Education gives you NI credits but Higher Education does not. So I have 2 years of contributions from my FE college course (aged 16-18) but 3 non eligible years when I was at university (aged 18-21).

Silvertabby

thewinelake wrote: »

OK, It was about 30 years ago, so my memory is vague. However, the Company that I've worked for since 1992 has never had a company pension scheme, so I guess I would have had to set up my own.

Where can I find my NI record?

OK - I found it, and it just says "Full Year" for every year apart from when I was at University in the late 80's (strangely it says full year for when I was at school...)

Just to complicate matters, when DWP say 'full year' they just mean full financial year, not that full NI contributions were paid rather than reduced contracted out contibutions.

You'll know if you have another pension tucked away somewhere if your State pension forecast shows a 'COPE' amount.

p00hsticks

vacheron wrote: »

I noticed this too.

Apparently Further Education gives you NI credits but Higher Education does not. So I have 2 years of contributions from my FE college course (aged 16-18) but 3 non eligible years when I was at university (aged 18-21).

It's nothing to do with the type of education (if any).

Up until 2010 (when the years needed to qualify for a full pension were substantially reduced) everone was automatically creditted with an NI year for the years they turned 16, 17 and (I thought, although your record suggests otherwise) 18

xylophone

You started work in 1992 and you are still working for the same company and there is still no pension scheme?

You contracted out of SERPS in aounnd 1998 on a personal basis?

Contracting out on this basis ended in 2012 so at that point you would have been automatically contracted in to S2P.

https://www.which.co.uk/money/pensions-and-retirement/state-pension/guides/what-was-contracting-out

What exactly does your state pension forecast say?

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