Help I feel swindled

Brynsam

zagubov wrote: »

surely there ought to be an information source that tells us to start a pension, import prior pension within the first year (if that's advantageous), pay extra into it, and find out what you can do with it and what are the penalties/implications of doing so or failing to.

Not sure how you've managed to miss the many exhortations in the media, massive government advertising etc doing much of the above. Both TPAS and MAS have websites which provide impartial information and TPAS offers a helpline/assistance from an expert adviser if you need it.

Financial advice is another matter - legislation prevents anyone other than a property authorised person from giving what counts as 'regulated' advice.

molerat

hyubh wrote: »

........... Scheme booklets, scheme website(s), benefit statements, ringing the administrator up and asking...?

Amazing the information that is included in that little (or not so little) booklet. When I was thinking of retiring at 55, 7 years after leaving a DB scheme, I dug the booklet out of the filing cabinet where it was safely stored with loads of other "useless" information and everything I wanted to know was there. Too many people just bin these things as they are of no interest at the time and then complain "I was never told about ....". The amount of stuff I used to find in former employees lockers whilst doing routine clearouts !

Silvertabby

molerat wrote: »

Amazing the information that is included in that little (or not so little) booklet. When I was thinking of retiring at 55, 7 years after leaving a DB scheme, I dug the booklet out of the filing cabinet where it was safely stored with loads of other "useless" information and everything I wanted to know was there. Too many people just bin these things as they are of no interest at the time and then complain "I was never told about ....". The amount of stuff I used to find in former employees lockers whilst doing routine clearouts !

There have been some major changes to the LGPS in the past few years, not least the switch from final salary to career average in 2014. Because of the importance of this change, we published the information as widely as possible - backs of payslips, newsletters, employee websites (which everyone had to visit in order to book annual leave etc) etc etc. Yet time after time, when answering telephone queries - "it's due to the switch from FS to CARE" - would be met with screams of "waddya mean it's no longer final salary - why wasn't I told?". After explaining that this information had been well advertised, the usual response was "but nobody bothers reading that boring pensions stuff".

A_Nice_Englishman

Silvertabby wrote: »

There have been some major changes to the LGPS in the past few years, not least the switch from final salary to career average in 2014. Because of the importance of this change, we published the information as widely as possible - backs of payslips, newsletters, employee websites (which everyone had to visit in order to book annual leave etc) etc etc. Yet time after time, when answering telephone queries - "it's due to the switch from FS to CARE" - would be met with screams of "waddya mean it's no longer final salary - why wasn't I told?". After explaining that this information had been well advertised, the usual response was "but nobody bothers reading that boring pensions stuff".

This LGPS member did! But then I worked in the pensions industry in a previous life so understood it and was able to do my own calculations to see what I could expect under various scenarios. I found the administrators were unable/unwilling to do so.

Silvertabby

A_Nice_Englishman wrote: »

This LGPS member did! But then I worked in the pensions industry in a previous life so understood it and was able to do my own calculations to see what I could expect under various scenarios. I found the administrators were unable/unwilling to do so.

Sadly, producing multiple estimates based on various scenarios wasn't an option for us either, as we just didn't have the time/staff to do the multiple calculations and then have them checked by another team member. What didn't help was the fact that the software trailed behind the changes - so all calculations had to be done manually to check that the computer produced data was correct. Very often it wasn't.

If it's down to a choice between paying a pensioner who had just retired, or running half a dozen 'what if' quotes, then the pensioner wins every time.

A_Nice_Englishman

Silvertabby wrote: »

Sadly, producing multiple estimates based on various scenarios wasn't an option for us either, as we just didn't have the time/staff to do the multiple calculations and then have them checked by another team member. What didn't help was the fact that the software trailed behind the changes - so all calculations had to be done manually to check that the computer produced data was correct. Very often it wasn't.

If it's down to a choice between paying a pensioner who had just retired, or running half a dozen 'what if' quotes, then the pensioner wins every time.

I agree with your priorities, but amazed you had to do manual calculations. That takes me back to the 1980s :eek:

Silvertabby

A_Nice_Englishman wrote: »

I agree with your priorities, but amazed you had to do manual calculations. That takes me back to the 1980s :eek:

Tell me about it - there were so many glitches with the new software we just couldn't rely on it. And there was me thinking that I'd never use algebra again when I left school!

GunJack

All fair points re:information sources, but I think the pertinent point of zagubov's post is that when you're young and starting off in work, no-one (at least very, very few) will stress to the individual how important the t&c's of pension schemes are, and how important it is for the individual to keep up-to-date with changes to those schemes. Not many youngsters will give two hoots about pensions either, and so what advice out there more often than not falls on deaf ears.

I think the minority of the adult population will be well-informed, the majority of the rest just don't get it at all....

Malthusian

Silvertabby wrote: »

Yet time after time, when answering telephone queries - "it's due to the switch from FS to CARE" - would be met with screams of "waddya mean it's no longer final salary - why wasn't I told?". After explaining that this information had been well advertised, the usual response was "but nobody bothers reading that boring pensions stuff".

And WASPI has somehow managed to spread this idea that if you pretend you didn't know about an adverse change in the terms of a contract (or state benefit in their case) you're legally exempted from it. Despite their utter and total defeat on every single front.

A_Nice_Englishman

GunJack wrote: »

All fair points re:information sources, but I think the pertinent point of zagubov's post is that when you're young and starting off in work, no-one (at least very, very few) will stress to the individual how important the t&c's of pension schemes are, and how important it is for the individual to keep up-to-date with changes to those schemes. Not many youngsters will give two hoots about pensions either, and so what advice out there more often than not falls on deaf ears.

I think the minority of the adult population will be well-informed, the majority of the rest just don't get it at all....

I wouldn't have when I first started work, had I not worked in the pensions industry. The huge differences in pensions we paid out to different people made want to make sure mine was at least adequate.