Believed Lost, NHS penion rights.

ann_droid

Hi

This is about an NHS pension, the NHS pension service have no records for.that time.

""

NHS employers now only generally retain records for a maximum of seven years and because NHS Pensions rely on the information provided by the employer, we can only consider membership enquiries where reliable supportive evidence is provided. It should be noted that evidence of NHS employment (such as payslips) does not necessarily prove membership of the Scheme.

• Membership ending between 1 October 1972 and 5 April 1988 – entitlement to deferred pension benefits would only apply if at least five years continuous membership had been attained.

Copies of cashed payable orders or data held by the employer relating to refund payments are only kept for a limited period of time. In the absence of records for the period in question it is suggested that you had either not paid pension contributions or you have since received a refund of those contributions. There is also a possibility that you elected to transfer your contributions to another pension scheme.

""

The hope is that it would have been a contracted out scheme and the DWP would have records to cover that time.

So is there a way of encouraging the DWP to give chapter and verse on the early 1970's NI contributions?

If so, How so.

State pension is in payment so a BR19 is not helpful I suspect.  The employer was the local Hospital Board, long since absorbed by reforms etc.

So DWP seems the only place to start.

TIA.

Drp8713

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but you have almost no chance of getting benefits from this.
Too much time has passed for either party to prove what has happend.
Yes, the DWP may be able to confirm that you were contracted out from 06/04/78 for a period in the NHS scheme, but this does not mean you are entitled to benefits.
You could have been refunded your contributions, a CEP should be paid to buy you back into the State Second Pension if that happens, but they were often paid in bulk and DWP manual record keeping back then wasnt up to much, so if the contracted out period still exists that doesnt prove the NHS owe you anything, it could just be the DWP didnt update their records.
You could also have transferred out, again the transferring of the GMP liability might help you, but if it was still with the NHS and you are past State Pension Age they would have already paid you it

coyrls

ann_droid said:

The hope is that it would have been a contracted out scheme and the DWP would have records to cover that time.

So is there a way of encouraging the DWP to give chapter and verse on the early 1970's NI contributions?

SERPS started in 1978 and so there was no contracting out in the early 1970's

ann_droid

Hi

Thank you both for the cheery news.

I realise there are many people in a similar leaky boat.

Contracted out period was indeed 06/04/1978 - 05/04/1997,  and no refund could have been paid for 2 very good reasons

It was a Lloyds Account that had a passbook (any payment would be visible), and a change of address that would not have been reported (student nurses were in Nurses Homes and moved from hospital to hospital during training etc).

This is a grudge that I hope Dementia does not lessen ;-)

So thank you both.

xylophone

Contracted out period was indeed 06/04/1978 - 05/04/1997, 

Are you saying that you worked for the NHS for over twenty years between the early seventies and 1997 and they have no record of a pension?

Silvertabby

I think OP is saying that she was in the NHS pension scheme pre contracting out - ie, early/mid 1970s.

OP - If that is the case, and if you had less than 5 years service AND were under 26 when you left, then your only option would have been a refund.  Unfortunately, it's likely that the refund would have been paid in the form of a cheque, and sent to the address held on your pension records.

xylophone

I realise there are many people in a similar leaky boat.

See thread below - DairyQueen's posts may be of interest to you.
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6009662/warning-double-check-state-pension-forecasts-after-govt-admits-significant-errors-mse-news/p3