Pension Tracing

steve-me5

Silvertabby wrote: »

Did your mum work part time? Many schemes didn't allow part timers to join before 1995, and then your mum may have had to actually apply to join after that.

Your dad may have opted out if money was tight, but his generation tended to see the value of paying into a pension scheme if one was available.

It is possible - but unusual for the time - for the scheme not to have been contracted out, hence the State pension result.

Can you post the name of the Company?

no mum was not part time - i asked dad over a year ago while he still had capacity if he ever opted out and he stated quite adamantly that he didnt and he understood what i was explaining

his state pension seems to be 'average'

equiniti

Brynsam

Quite possible that your mother paid what used to be known colloquially as 'the small stamp' - a lower level of National Insurance which married women (not men) could choose to pay. They would not build up an entitlement to the state pension, so even if she did belong to a 'contracted out' scheme, this would not show up on her NI record.

Edit - corrected with apologies (and thanks to Xylophone!)

Zanderman

steve-me5 wrote: »

equiniti

Do you mean they worked for Equiniti? Equiniti was only founded in about 2007 so that seems unlikely. Or do you think the pensions are run by Equiniti?

It would be helpful to know what the company they worked for was called, when they worked for it

Brynsam

Equini are third party pension scheme administrators. The name of the company your parents worked for might help us help you.

xylophone

They would still build up an entitlement to the basic state pension, but not the state additional pension (Graduated Retirement Benefit/SERPS/State Second Pension),

This is not accurate.

See House of Commons Library

Married women and state pensions
Standard Note: SN 1910
Last updated: 28 October 2014
Author: Djuna Thurley
Section Business and Transport Section


Before 1977, married women were able to elect to pay reduced National Insurance contributions in return for not accruing entitlement to contributory benefits such as the state pension in their own right. Instead, they would be able to claim a state pension at 60% of the
basic rate on the basis of their husband's contributions when both had reached State Pension age.

The option to pay reduced rate contributions was removed for marriages on or after 6 April 1977, but women who had already married were given the option of retaining it.

However, some women who had paid reduced contributions were later shocked to find they had accrued low state pension entitlements, arguing that the position had not been clear to them. In response to debates on the issue, government ministers have tended to argue that
information to explain the implications was made available to women both at the time the election was made and in subsequent information campaigns.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/special-reports/the-married-women-getting-30p-a-week-pension---despite-50-years/

Lynda Moore, 71, was offered the lower rate when she got married in the early 1960s.

The retired nurse says she did not make the connection with her state pension, believing that the reduced rate, also known as the "small stamp", was "something to do with the NHS".

Now her pension is worth just 30p a week, despite the fact that she worked for almost 50 years.

steve-me5

Brynsam wrote: »

Quite possible that your mother paid what used to be known colloquially as 'the small stamp' - a lower level of National Insurance which married women (not men) could choose to pay. They would not build up an entitlement to the state pension, so even if she did belong to a 'contracted out' scheme, this would not show up on her NI record.

Edit - corrected with apologies (and thanks to Xylophone!)

her pension payment was very small compared to dads so possibly

steve-me5

Brynsam wrote: »

Equini are third party pension scheme administrators. The name of the company your parents worked for might help us help you.

Elliot Brothers - GECMarconi - GEC Marconi Avionics - GEC Avionics - British Aerospace

was all the same company just kept changing name every 4-5 years

steve-me5

now even more confused as found a pay statement from december 99 but there is no NI on it ???

Silvertabby

steve-me5 wrote: »

now even more confused as found a pay statement from december 99 but there is no NI on it ???

NI Cat C (top line) means over State pension age, so no NI is payable. Your dad must have reached 65 earlier that year, hence the £45.12 balance.

More worrying is the absence of company pension contributions. Can you find any earler payslips? Some pension schemes didn't permit contributions over State pension age.

Brynsam

Silvertabby wrote: »

NI Cat C (top line) means over State pension age, so no NI is payable. Your dad must have reached 65 earlier that year, hence the £45.12 balance.

More worrying is the absence of company pension contributions. Can you find any earler payslips? Some pension schemes didn't permit contributions over State pension age.

In 1999, very few company pension schemes allowed/required contributions beyond the scheme's retirement age - and it is highly unlikely this would have been higher than 65, so the absence of pension contributions is no surprise. If your father worked beyond retirement age and drew his pension after he left service, he would have been given an increase in the starting level of his pension known as a 'late retirement factor' increase.

The real issue is whether he ever belonged to the pension scheme. The GEC scheme has a complex history and you might find some expert help based on all the fact you can supply would be more use than posting piecemeal bits of information on this site. Try https://www.pensionsadvisoryservice.org.uk/pension-problems/making-a-complaint/common-concerns/lost-pensions.