Contracted out SERPS / COPE. Help Advise Please.

dickdasdedly

Hi and thanks if any input

I recently looked on the govs website to see what pension i would get when i reach retirement age.
It said i could could receive my pension on 12 Jan 2028 and i would receive a state pension of £159.55 a week. On the next page it said "in the past i had been contracted out of the additional state pension" and you and your employer paid lower rate national insurance contributions or some of your national insurance were paid into another pension scheme ect ect. It went onto say that the amount of the additional state pension i would of received if i had not been contracted out of what is now called COPE would of been £53,99 a week. Now i vaguely remember this happening when i was in the merchant navy when i was in my teens or early 20s and had believed it to be going into my merchant navy pension at the time. This was then transferred to my NHS pension in 1995 and to be honest it never came to mind to think what was happening with SERPS. Now after seeing this i contacted my NHS pension to ask if the SERP payments was being paid into this pension to be told that the government had stopped this yrs ago. And according to the adviser on the phone i hadn't lost out because id been paying a lower national insurance. Now i dont know if that is right or not or if i should of been told by the government so i could have opted back into SERPS or if that was even at all possible. I do know that £53.99 is quite a chuck out of my pension that i could of had when i retire. So is there anything i can do about this or could i opt back in to SERPS or what can i do to help my self moving forward from now. I know its a bit long winded but thanks for taking the time to read this.
Richard |W

dunstonh

Now i vaguely remember this happening when i was in the merchant navy when i was in my teens or early 20s and had believed it to be going into my merchant navy pension at the time.

That would likely have been a contracted out pension.

This was then transferred to my NHS pension in 1995 and to be honest it never came to mind to think what was happening with SERPS.

The NHS pension would contracted out too.

And according to the adviser on the phone i hadn't lost out because id been paying a lower national insurance.

Correct.

Now i dont know if that is right or not or if i should of been told by the government so i could have opted back into SERPS or if that was even at all possible.

You didnt have any choice in the matter.

I do know that £53.99 is quite a chuck out of my pension that i could of had when i retire.

You havent lost £53.99. The occupational pensions are paying the benefits instead of the state.

. So is there anything i can do about this or could i opt back in to SERPS

Contracting out of SERPS ended in 2002. Contracting out via the state second pension took its place and ended in 2012 for individual schemes and 2016 for occupational schemes. (the term "opting out" actually means something different but it is a common misuse of jargon).

or what can i do to help my self moving forward from now.

Pay into a pension if you want more. The state pension is taken care of for you and needs no action on your part.

squirrelpie

What dustonh said. You haven't lost out; in fact you've been quite lucky to get both the £53.99 as part of your NHS pension, plus the full state pension instead of a reduced one. It's all a bit complicated and due to the way the rules have changed over the years, and especially how they've been made so people don't lose out.

GunJack

dickdasdedly wrote: »

Hi and thanks if any input

I recently looked on the govs website to see what pension i would get when i reach retirement age.
It said i could could receive my pension on 12 Jan 2028 and i would receive a state pension of £159.55 a week. On the next page it said "in the past i had been contracted out of the additional state pension" and you and your employer paid lower rate national insurance contributions or some of your national insurance were paid into another pension scheme ect ect. It went onto say that the amount of the additional state pension i would of received if i had not been contracted out of what is now called COPE would of been £53,99 a week. Now i vaguely remember this happening when i was in the merchant navy when i was in my teens or early 20s and had believed it to be going into my merchant navy pension at the time. This was then transferred to my NHS pension in 1995 and to be honest it never came to mind to think what was happening with SERPS. Now after seeing this i contacted my NHS pension to ask if the SERP payments was being paid into this pension to be told that the government had stopped this yrs ago. And according to the adviser on the phone i hadn't lost out because id been paying a lower national insurance. Now i dont know if that is right or not or if i should of been told by the government so i could have opted back into SERPS or if that was even at all possible. I do know that £53.99 is quite a chuck out of my pension that i could of had when i retire. So is there anything i can do about this or could i opt back in to SERPS or what can i do to help my self moving forward from now. I know its a bit long winded but thanks for taking the time to read this.
Richard |W

Have you checked what your NHS pension is worth yet?? You're very likely one of the winners, having been contracted out into a very good pension which should dwarf the COPE amount...

Linton

Your forecast SP is the maximum you can get under the New State Pension. This is probably because you will have sufficient post 2016 NI years to exceed the COPE amount. So you havent lost out at all, but rather as others have said, gained by paying less NI than those without a DB pension who paid full NI.

caronoel

Step 1 in sorting the so called funding crisis in the NHS is to get rid of the gold plated pensions that private sector workers could only dream of

hyubh

caronoel wrote: »

Step 1 in sorting the so called funding crisis in the NHS is to get rid of the gold plated pensions that private sector workers could only dream of

Wrong board - toodle along to this one:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=57

Ta!