Contracted out of SERPS in the 80's, Aviva not interested

grazzzz

So i worked for Dagenham Motors in the early 80s till 92 and somewhere along the way they contracted me out of serps , i dont ever remember a conversation about this , and i have contacted Aviva (Then Norwich Union) via the government website to be told by them 
Aviva is the product provider of your policy although our records indicate this policy was taken out with no agent involved.Any financial advisor would have been in the employ of the Dagenham Motors scheme so unable to investigate further.
I no longer have my Aviva pension changed it to an old mutual,my financial advisor also said he didn't sell original so cant get involved
Dagenham Motors got purchased by Jardine Motors group in 1998 so no longer exists 
What do i do ? 

Linton

Why do you need to do anything?  What do you want to do? Why does anything need to be investigated?

The chances are that being contracted out of SERPs was a requirement of the company pension scheme.

georgehere

grazzzz - are you saying that you have tried to trace a pension you earned while employed (DMotors)... tracked it to Aviva - then they said they haven't go it? there's a few things mentioned in your post about Aviva / NUnion /Old Mutual so it isn't clear exactly what's gone wrong  - can you clarify / break it down?

Albermarle

Being contracted out of SERPS was quite common . You end up with a smaller state pension that if you had stayed contracted in but have a separate pension pot instead. For most people it does not make a huge difference either way .
There are some claims firms advertising that they can get compensation for SERPS 'victims' but the chances of success seem to be extremely small as in most cases it was not actually a disadvantage . If the pension pot was well invested then it was actually a better result being contracted out

squirrelpie

Albermarle said:

Being contracted out of SERPS was quite common . You end up with a smaller state pension that if you had stayed contracted in but have a separate pension pot instead.

That used to be the case, but I think since the state pension changed in 2016 it isn't always so, provided you have time to build up full entitlement.

I'd like to know the answers to the questions Linton asked, too.

Albermarle

That used to be the case, but I think since the state pension changed in 2016 it isn't always so, provided you have time to build up full entitlement 

If you never opted out of SERPS and had a high enough salary for enough years then even today you can get a larger state pension than normal.

The rules/calculation are  quite complicated but it is has to be like this or those who never opted out of SERPS would be unfairly treated .

dunstonh

You couldnt contract out of SERPS until 1987.      If it was a group pension/occupational pension then contracting out was typically not optional (you were not given a choice) but it formed part of the main pension.  No financial advisers involved with large pensions like that.  This fits with the Aviva response.
It would not be an additional pension scheme but part of the main occupational one.  So, you would have one "Norwich Union" pension as it was made up of both protected rights (from contracting out) and non-protected ordinary rights.    In 2012, protected rights were abolished and reclassified as non-protected rights.  This allowed them to be merged into one pot.

I no longer have my Aviva pension changed it to an old mutual,my financial advisor also said he didn't sell original so cant get involved

In, which case, the Aviva pension that was transferred was probably made up of the contracted-out rebates in the value that was transferred to Old Mutual.

ffacoffipawb

dunstonh said:

You couldnt contract out of SERPS until 1987.      If it was a group pension/occupational pension then contracting out was typically not optional (you were not given a choice) but it formed part of the main pension.  No financial advisers involved with large pensions like that.  This fits with the Aviva response.
It would not be an additional pension scheme but part of the main occupational one.  So, you would have one "Norwich Union" pension as it was made up of both protected rights (from contracting out) and non-protected ordinary rights.    In 2012, protected rights were abolished and reclassified as non-protected rights.  This allowed them to be merged into one pot.

I no longer have my Aviva pension changed it to an old mutual,my financial advisor also said he didn't sell original so cant get involved

In, which case, the Aviva pension that was transferred was probably made up of the contracted-out rebates in the value that was transferred to Old Mutual.

You could contract out of SERPS in 1978 in a defined benefit scheme. Its possible the Dagenham Motors scheme was defined benefit if it was around in the 1980's. Perhaps it became a section 32 buyout when Aviva took it on. OP needs to give more details really.

dunstonh

ffacoffipawb said:

dunstonh said:

You couldnt contract out of SERPS until 1987.      If it was a group pension/occupational pension then contracting out was typically not optional (you were not given a choice) but it formed part of the main pension.  No financial advisers involved with large pensions like that.  This fits with the Aviva response.
It would not be an additional pension scheme but part of the main occupational one.  So, you would have one "Norwich Union" pension as it was made up of both protected rights (from contracting out) and non-protected ordinary rights.    In 2012, protected rights were abolished and reclassified as non-protected rights.  This allowed them to be merged into one pot.

I no longer have my Aviva pension changed it to an old mutual,my financial advisor also said he didn't sell original so cant get involved

In, which case, the Aviva pension that was transferred was probably made up of the contracted-out rebates in the value that was transferred to Old Mutual.

You could contract out of SERPS in 1978 in a defined benefit scheme. Its possible the Dagenham Motors scheme was defined benefit if it was around in the 1980's. Perhaps it became a section 32 buyout when Aviva took it on. OP needs to give more details really.

I worked on the basis that the OP said it was Norwich Union and that was the case at the time he was paying into it.     If it was a DB scheme at the time and it was later transferred to NU then you are quite correct.