Lost Pension

AndyMez

Good afternoon and thank you for adding me.
I recently found some old payslips from a company I worked for over 20 years ago.
The payslips show over 3 years of pension payments, but due to moving house many times, I have no paperwork showing the policy provider, let alone a policy number.
The company I worked for has ceased to trade with no ability to contact them or previous employees.
The Gov website cannot help me or any of the search companies I have tried.
Is there a way of finding out where my pension pot is held using my NI number, etc.?

xylophone

Are you under state pension age?

Have you obtained a new state pension statement?

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

The company I worked for has ceased to trade

Was it taken over by another company?

Was the pension contracted out?

AndyMez

Hi thanks for the reply..

Yes I am 57
No the company just CTT with no new ownership
I believe it was originally with Windsor Life now ReAssure, however they have no records of my name or the company I worked for.

I'm just lost in someones system.

Andy

xylophone

You are sure that you did not transfer the pension to a new employer's scheme?

Silvertabby

Get a State pension forecast (see xylophone's link in post No 2). If this pension scheme was contracted out (quite likely 20 years ago) then you will have a COPE amount in your calculations.

You could then ask DWP which pension scheme carries your GMP liability.

Brynsam

Please could you be a bit more precise about when you worked for them, in particular your date of leaving (the dates on your payslip, perhaps)?

Kynthia

Is it worth checking with the employer you went to next, to see if they have records of you transferring in a pension?

AndyMez

Thanks all for your helpful replies.

After checking the Gov/Pension website it would appear that I had a fund moved to COPE status which is included in my state pension forecast which I will be able to claim in 2028, unless anybody knows how to draw it earlier.

Andy

Dazed_and_confused

But if you still don't know who the fund is held with how are you going to draw it ever?

You do realise that the COPE figure is just used for a particular calculation, the actual fund (which is never in a million years going to match the COPE figure) is separate.

You still need to track it down.

Silvertabby

AndyMez wrote: »

Thanks all for your helpful replies.

After checking the Gov/Pension website it would appear that I had a fund moved to COPE status which is included in my state pension forecast which I will be able to claim in 2028, unless anybody knows how to draw it earlier.

Andy

Speak to DWP to ask if they can tell you which pension fund your COPE relates to. They may/should be able to do this as having a COPE means that you will also have a GMP (in respect of your pre 1997 membership) - and DWP keep track of which fund carries the liability for that.

ADD: The book on GMP/COPE is longer than War & Peace but, briefly:

Your COPE hasn't been 'moved' anywhere. When you joined a contracted out pension fund, both you and your employer paid reduced rates of National Insurance. In return, your pension fund undertook to pay you at least the amount of additional State pension (SERPS/SP2, not the COPE amount) you gave up. Your actual pension fund may be worth more than your COPE, or it may be worth less. Whatever the answer, this pension entitlement still lies with your pension fund, and won't be added to your State pension.

So, you need to track it down. If it's gone bust, then you may be able to claim something from the PPF. Otherwise, you may be able to claim it from 55 onwards - but may be from GMP age (still 60 for a woman for 65 for a man).

xylophone

You are now 57 so the likelihood is that you have been in employment for close on forty years.

At some point in those years, you have been in a contracted out pension scheme or possibly more than one contracted out pension scheme.

It is possible that the pension from more than twenty years ago was one such scheme.

It is also possible (if this was the case) that the pension was transferred to a S32 buy out with an insurer when the company closed down.

Check with DWP from which scheme or schemes your Contracted Out Pension Equivalent derives.

You can read

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/447195/new-state-pension--effect-of-being-contracted-out.pdf

bearing in mind that the actual BSP 2016-17 was £119.30 and the NSP was £155.65.

If the pension from twenty years ago was not contracted out then you may be no further forward.