Redundancy at 55

CherryMaraschino

Just in process if being made redundant. I have an NHS pension which I have been advised that I can take as I'm 55 years old. My union rep strongly thinks that my employer has to pay contributions from redundancy date until my pensionable age of 67. I've contacted the pension company who said that is incorrect. My company have been awful in their dealings with regards to redundancy & actually made 2 illegal 'mistakes' which the union sorted out so in really wary now. Just need to know if my company has to pay my pension up to when I'm 67.
Thank you for any advice.

blue.peter

Put simply, your pension provider is correct.

Why does your union rep think that the employer should continue to pay pension contributions after you've left service? Of course it would be lovely if they did. However, this is an extraordinarily unusual idea. I don't recall ever having seen it happen, and I worked for large pension providers for 35 years. A former employer can make such contributions, but it's not at all certain that they'd get tax relief on such contributions. Without that certainty, I doubt if they'd be willing to do it. Even with such certainty, I would not expect them to agree (except, possibly, in very odd circumstances).

Edit: I was made redundant twice (in 2009 and 2015). in both cases, i was part of a much larger cull of entire departments. In neither case was there any suggestion of ongoing pension contributions after redundancy from either employer for any of the staff being shed, either from the employers or from any of my colleagues.

CherryMaraschino

Thank you for your information blue-peter. I'm very grateful. I won't take my pension but will ask to keep it open as once I'm better (broke leg & knee so am in an ilizarov frame) I will be looking for another position in the NHS.
Kind Regards, 

blue.peter

I'm sorry that I couldn't give the answer that you'd have liked, CherryMaraschino, but I do hope that it all works out as well for you as it did for me after my redundancies.

(Yes, I did have to look up the Ilizarov apparatus in Wikipedia. That can't be fun. I wish you a speedy recovery from your injury.)

CherryMaraschino

Thank you for your kind wishes blue-peter, you did exactly what I preferred, no flim/flam. Until I'm available for work whenever that is & as I can't get around I'm looking at online courses.
Thank you once again.