Pension COPE clarification

fewcloudy

Hi,

So my state pension forecast says;

Your forecast is
£168.60 a week
£733.11 a month, £8,797.31 a year

Its also says;

In the past you’ve been ‘contracted out’ of the additional State Pension.
When you were contracted out:
• you and your employers paid lower rate National Insurance contributions, or
• some of your National Insurance contributions were paid into another pension scheme, such as a personal or stakeholder pension
The amount of additional State Pension you would have been paid if you had not been contracted out is known as the Contracted Out Pension Equivalent (COPE).
Contracted Out Pension Equivalent (COPE)
Your COPE estimate is £40.66 a week.
This will not affect your State Pension forecast. The COPE amount is paid as part of your other pension schemes, not by the government.
In most cases the private pension scheme you were contracted out to:
• will include an amount equal to the COPE amount
• may not individually identify the COPE amount
The total amount of pension paid by your workplace or personal pension schemes will depend on the scheme and on any investment choices.

So my question is... Does this mean that although I am forecast to receive full state pension, it will not be £168.60 per week. It will be £168.60 minus £40.66 so £127.94 per week?

And my LGPS pension forecast includes the £40.66?

many thanks for reading

Linton

The forecast figure is the figure to use. COPE is a value used in the calculation of the forecast but in your case it would appear that you are due the full state pension, probably because you were also also contracted in for a significant period, so COPE is irrelevent.

minty777

It means you will only get £1.87 a week state pension

Silvertabby

The word 'forecast' indicates that £168 is the maximum State pension you could accrue if you carry on working/paying NI until xx/xx/xxxx. The COPE is not then deducted.

Does the statement give your current state pension?

Your £40.66 COPE equivalent will indeed be paid as part of your LGPS pension - but don't try to look for this amount on your LGPS statements because it won't be there.

Marcon

fewcloudy wrote: »

Your COPE estimate is £40.66 a week.
This will not affect your State Pension forecast. The COPE amount is paid as part of your other pension schemes, not by the government.

The statement does actually give you confirmation, but I can see why you might want others to confirm (perhaps ignore minty777's wholly incorrect post, though!.

fewcloudy

Marcon wrote: »

The statement does actually give you confirmation, but I can see why you might want others to confirm (perhaps ignore minty777's wholly incorrect post, though!.

Thank you everyone for your replies, it is much appreciated.

Yes, it does actually give confirmation. But why even mention COPE, if it makes no difference to the state pension I will receive?

Silvertabby - the rest of the forecast says...

You need to continue to contribute National Insurance to reach your forecast
Estimate based on your National Insurance record up to 5 April 2019
£157.40 a week
Forecast if you contribute another 3 years before 5 April 2032
£168.60 a week

So, prior to checking my state pension forecast, I thought...

When I retire my LGPS pension will be approx. £30000 per year
My state pension will be £8797 per year.
Together that makes approx £38797 per year.

Is that correct? Or not?

I now think that the LGPS element of my total pension includes approx. £40 of state pension due to COPE, i.e. I think my total pension will be less than I was expecting, by £40 x 52 weeks each year, about £2000?

SeeMe

I am not a expert but i have seen enough posts to say you will get the £38797 if you add the 3 more years for the full £168.60. And by 2032 the state pension should be more than £168.60 and you get all the rises as well.

molerat

Ignore anything to do with COPE, it is irrelevant to your current pension forecasts and has no effect on what you will receive. COPE was used once and once only and that was to calculate your April 2016 state pension starting amount.

Silvertabby

Silvertabby - the rest of the forecast says...

You need to continue to contribute National Insurance to reach your forecast
Estimate based on your National Insurance record up to 5 April 2019
£157.40 a week
Forecast if you contribute another 3 years before 5 April 2032
£168.60 a week

So, prior to checking my state pension forecast, I thought...

When I retire my LGPS pension will be approx. £30000 per year
My state pension will be £8797 per year.
Together that makes approx £38797 per year.

Is that correct? Or not?

Yes. Your State pension at the moment is £157.40, rising to the full £168.60 as long as you work/pay NI for another 3 years.

This is on top of your LGPS pension.

fewcloudy

Thank you to all who replied.

And I must apologise for not using the Search function prior to asking, otherwise I would have seen the numerous threads on COPE already asked, and which some of you have answered on many times before. How tiresome us new 'pension info seekers' must be to you all!

However, I can see that it is not only me who was confused by the wording used on the state forecast. If they just made some very minor changes to the standard information supplied with the forecast, it would avoid all of this.

Thanks again.