COPE?

Rollingonandon

Hi all, looking at my state pension it mentions I will have a COPE payment. So if it says I have COPE at some point in my working life part of my NI would have been invested in a private pension? The COPE amount is £20 a week. I've contacted the company I think it  was with. The approximate year's I worked for them would be 1984 - 1993. 
Is there another way to find out who the COPE was with. I have rang up the company concerned, they were not to helpful. It was a long time ago.

Dazed_and_C0nfused

It doesn't always means there was a private pension.

Do you have an old defined benefit (final salary or career average) pension?

Rollingonandon

No, I thought that that if it says you contracted out both employer and employee paid less NI. And that had to be invested in a pension. Am I wrong in thinking that.

Silvertabby

If your COPE is linked to your employment from 1984 to 1993 then it's more likely to be a contracted out occupational (company) final salary pension rather than a private pension.

Can you post the name of the organisation you worked for?  One of us may then be able to give you a steer. 

Rollingonandon

It is just a very small local engineering company. Probably no more than 30 people working there at the time I was there.

xylophone

https://www.gov.uk/find-pension-contact-details

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/hmrc-subject-access-request

dunstonh

So if it says I have COPE at some point in my working life part of my NI would have been invested in a private pension?

Contracting out had two methods.  Contracting out via an appropriate personal pension plan started in 1987.   Contracting out via an occupational pension was possible many years earlier than that.

I thought that that if it says you contracted out both employer and employee paid less NI. And that had to be invested in a pension. Am I wrong in thinking that.

That is just one method of contracting out.

Rollingonandon

Thanks xylophone, your top link I’ve looked into and contacted NEST associated with the company I worked for. They were only involved since 2012. No record of me. I have sent a request to find out information about any contracted out payments to see if I can find out who they went to. Only sent that off yesterday, will find out what department I sent it to tomorrow.
If my pension forecast says I have  cope, does that definitely mean I have a pension payment somewhere. If I can find where it is.

xylophone

See

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/state-pension-fact-sheets/contracting-out-and-why-we-may-have-included-a-contracted-out-pension-equivalent-cope-amount-when-you-used-the-online-service

for explanation of COPE.

Do you have a record of all employment to date?

Silvertabby

Back then, a small local company almost certainly won't have had its own pension scheme.

Where else have you worked?  I'm thinking specifically anywhere in the public sector, as you may not have realised that you had been automatically entered into the pension scheme.

Albermarle

Rollingonandon said:

Thanks xylophone, your top link I’ve looked into and contacted NEST associated with the company I worked for. They were only involved since 2012. No record of me. I have sent a request to find out information about any contracted out payments to see if I can find out who they went to. Only sent that off yesterday, will find out what department I sent it to tomorrow.
If my pension forecast says I have  cope, does that definitely mean I have a pension payment somewhere. If I can find where it is.

If NI payments were contributed to a personal pension, then somewhere there will be a pot of money in a pension with one of the pension providers. Normally you should have received annual statements from them if that was the case, and you should continue to do so ( unless you have moved address and did not tell them ) Do you remember ever receiving any? To begin with the amounts would have been quite small. Also it is quite possible the pension provider has been taken over since then and may have a different name.