Pension contributions from 1980's

kuzeyboy

I remember that when I worked for a certain High Street bank in 70's and 80's, I didn't complete five years service so my pension money disappeared and was transferred somewhere.  I have never found out where this somewhere is - does anyone know what happened to these old pension contributions?

p00hsticks

Most probably - either they didn't actually start deducting pension contributions until you had attained the reached the minimum required service, or you got them refunded when you left ?

kuzeyboy

Definitely no refund and I remember being told that it was being returned to the government ....

dunstonh

I remember that when I worked for a certain High Street bank in 70's and 80's, I didn't complete five years service so my pension money disappeared and was transferred somewhere.
  I have never found out where this somewhere is - does anyone know what happened to these old pension contributions?

Most bank pensions up until the mid 90s were non-contributory. 

kuzeyboy

Thanks for that but what do I do?

Marcon

kuzeyboy said:

Thanks for that but what do I do?

Nothing, I'm afraid. The reference to 'returning to the government' suggests that you belonged to a scheme which was contracted out of SERPS and when you left, the scheme paid a premium to reinstate you in SERPS.

As mentioned above, most banks had non-contributory pension schemes, so if you left without completing the minimum period of pension scheme membership needed to qualify for a 'deferred' pension, there would have been nothing to refund. 

xylophone

 so my pension money disappeared and was transferred somewhere. 

 As above, this may have been an "accrued rights premium" paid to National Insurance and Contributions Office (NICO) to reinstate you in the State Earnings Related Pension Scheme which ran from  1978 to 2002.

You might submit

https://www.tax.service.gov.uk/shortforms/form/DPU_SAR_NI for more information.

Brie

Try the pension tracking service 
https://www.gov.uk/find-pension-contact-details

I suspect as others have suggested that there will be nothing accrued for you.  The high street bank that I worked for had strict rules about retaining benefits and you needed to have been there 5  to 10 years and that had to include you being over 25 or 30 years old. And usually many of these rules really worked against those employees that were female as some employers insisted they quit working if they married.

If there is a small benefit left it may be an EPB - Equivalent Pension Benefit.  Basically the bank was at one point paying in half pence per week or similar for each employee and they may still have records about this.  As I recall most total payouts were around £15 - £30.  Yes that's THIRTY pounds total sometimes for 2 - 3 years service.