Redundancy due to health

TVAS

When I found out my sister had not joined the Teachers Pension Scheme at first opportunity I went ballistic. Why didn't you with your friend ages ago? This is Thatcher's fault. In dem olden days you HAD to join the pension scheme as a condition of employment before 1 July 1988. The Financial Services Act 1988 abolished this requirement of forced savings and from 1 July 1988 one could opt out or be a non joiner for newbies.

Retireinten

TVAS said:

When I found out my sister had not joined the Teachers Pension Scheme at first opportunity I went ballistic. Why didn't you with your friend ages ago? This is Thatcher's fault. In dem olden days you HAD to join the pension scheme as a condition of employment before 1 July 1988. The Financial Services Act 1988 abolished this requirement of forced savings and from 1 July 1988 one could opt out or be a non joiner for newbies.

I joined the LGPS at 19 years old, I was bright enough at that age to know I needed a pension (I had actually started a very small private pension at 18) but not bright enough to understand the vast difference between my measly private pension and the LGPS. 


I can remember being asked if I wanted to join the pension and I said no thanks I already have a pension. There was no advice, no information, nothing at all about the benefits of the scheme at that point. A couple of years later and I realised the error of my ways, but I reckon that blunder has cost me around £1,500 a year in lost pension. 


But I've found you really can't advise people that have intentionally decided not to pay into the LGPS, despite having an understanding of the benefits, to join the scheme. I have managed to convince a new, previously private sector, member of staff to join the scheme... it actually featured on her one to one (yes, I'm a terrible manager ) until she caved and joined just to shut me up. 

Silvertabby

Retireinten said:

TVAS said:

When I found out my sister had not joined the Teachers Pension Scheme at first opportunity I went ballistic. Why didn't you with your friend ages ago? This is Thatcher's fault. In dem olden days you HAD to join the pension scheme as a condition of employment before 1 July 1988. The Financial Services Act 1988 abolished this requirement of forced savings and from 1 July 1988 one could opt out or be a non joiner for newbies.

I joined the LGPS at 19 years old, I was bright enough at that age to know I needed a pension (I had actually started a very small private pension at 18) but not bright enough to understand the vast difference between my measly private pension and the LGPS. 


I can remember being asked if I wanted to join the pension and I said no thanks I already have a pension. There was no advice, no information, nothing at all about the benefits of the scheme at that point. A couple of years later and I realised the error of my ways, but I reckon that blunder has cost me around £1,500 a year in lost pension. 


But I've found you really can't advise people that have intentionally decided not to pay into the LGPS, despite having an understanding of the benefits, to join the scheme. I have managed to convince a new, previously private sector, member of staff to join the scheme... it actually featured on her one to one (yes, I'm a terrible manager ) until she caved and joined just to shut me up. 

Part of my job as a LGPS administrator was trying to pursuade people not to opt out of the pension scheme,  by telling them what benefits they would be giving up.

Many of these weren't low paid part timers, but were 20 and 30 year old full timers on decent salaries - yet my words fell on deaf ears because I suspect that they had already 'spent' the extra salary they would receive.

The reasons for opting out were numerous, but the ones that stick in my memory were:

"My husband has a good pension, so I don't need one as well".

"This is just another council tax, and if I don't have to pay it I won't".

"The LGPS is a rip off - you are charging me £100 per month, when I can get a stakeholder pension for just £20 a month".

"The State pension is going to be the same as my wages, so I don't need this pension as well".  After I explained what the restoration of the link between earnings and the State pension really meant, that switched to " Well, the money's better off in my pocket than the Council's".

nigelbb

Retireinten said:

TVAS said:

When I found out my sister had not joined the Teachers Pension Scheme at first opportunity I went ballistic. Why didn't you with your friend ages ago? This is Thatcher's fault. In dem olden days you HAD to join the pension scheme as a condition of employment before 1 July 1988. The Financial Services Act 1988 abolished this requirement of forced savings and from 1 July 1988 one could opt out or be a non joiner for newbies.

I joined the LGPS at 19 years old, I was bright enough at that age to know I needed a pension (I had actually started a very small private pension at 18) but not bright enough to understand the vast difference between my measly private pension and the LGPS. 


I can remember being asked if I wanted to join the pension and I said no thanks I already have a pension. There was no advice, no information, nothing at all about the benefits of the scheme at that point. A couple of years later and I realised the error of my ways, but I reckon that blunder has cost me around £1,500 a year in lost pension. 


But I've found you really can't advise people that have intentionally decided not to pay into the LGPS, despite having an understanding of the benefits, to join the scheme. I have managed to convince a new, previously private sector, member of staff to join the scheme... it actually featured on her one to one (yes, I'm a terrible manager ) until she caved and joined just to shut me up. 

I have had similar conversations with colleagues regarding the NHS pension scheme. The current 2015 scheme accrues at a rate of 1/54 of basic salary which given average life expectancy at retirement of over 20 years means it's effectively about 40% more index linked salary paid in retirement. When presented in these terms the short term boost of receiving 10-12.5% by forgoing employee contributions doesn't look so attractive particularly for those paying 40% income tax.

Pollycat

You can take a horse to water...

Hopefully, the OP will update what happened to his friend.

I hope someone has advised/is advising her about what to do about claiming/deferring her state pension.

sevenhills

Pollycat said:

Hopefully, the OP will update what happened to his friend.

I hope someone has advised/is advising her about what to do about claiming/deferring her state pension.

It seems that she has been getting a phone call from our office, but no one has asked her to retire and she doesn't know what to do.

She sent me a message saying that she has spoken to someone from the union about retiring and there are three ways to retire.

We did have appraisals every six months pre COVID, they can be a waste of time, but then people who need help get missed if they don't happen. It does seem like poor management to me.

Pollycat

sevenhills said:

Pollycat said:

Hopefully, the OP will update what happened to his friend.

I hope someone has advised/is advising her about what to do about claiming/deferring her state pension.

It seems that she has been getting a phone call from our office, but no one has asked her to retire and she doesn't know what to do.

She sent me a message saying that she has spoken to someone from the union about retiring and there are three ways to retire.

We did have appraisals every six months pre COVID, they can be a waste of time, but then people who need help get missed if they don't happen. It does seem like poor management to me.

I don't think it is the responsibility of an employer to advise on claiming/deferring state pension.

Has she had any communication for DWP regarding claiming her state pension?

You do not get your State Pension automatically - you have to claim it. You should get a letter no later than 2 months before you reach State Pension age, telling you what to do.

You can either claim your State Pension or delay (defer) claiming it.

If you want to defer, you do not have to do anything. Your pension will automatically be deferred until you claim it.

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

The state pension point I brought up is separate from the issue your friend has with her employer and her year-long sick absence.

sevenhills

Pollycat said:

I don't think it is the responsibility of an employer to advise on claiming/deferring state pension.

Has she had any communication for DWP regarding claiming her state pension?

She has recently said that she is claiming the state pension, but has not yet retired from work.

Marcon

TVAS said:

When I found out my sister had not joined the Teachers Pension Scheme at first opportunity I went ballistic. Why didn't you with your friend ages ago? This is Thatcher's fault. In dem olden days you HAD to join the pension scheme as a condition of employment before 1 July 1988. The Financial Services Act 1988 abolished this requirement of forced savings and from 1 July 1988 one could opt out or be a non joiner for newbies.

Compulsory membership of occupational pension schemes was abolished from 6 April 1988, not 1 July 1988 (I think you're confusing the date with when personal pensions were first available). Even so, you didn't 'HAVE" to join the pension scheme as a condition of employment - only if your terms of employment specified you were required to do so. Many employers didn't even offer pension schemes, so being compulsory wasn't an option; no scheme the employees could join.

As for why OP didn't 'go ballistic' with this friend - maybe she isn't the sort of control freak who behaves in such an exaggerated manner - although I certainly don't disagree with the sentiment!

kidmugsy

TVAS said:

This is Thatcher's fault. 

Absolutely: how dare she extend people's freedom to save or not, as they wished?  

Don't blame your sister, of course.  Is your family from Liverpool by any chance?