Could I have had a pension?

socks_uk

I left school in 1980 age 16 and went straight into a 6 month youth opportunity training scheme at Boots the Chemist. At the end of the 6 months I was kept on as a full time employee until I left 1988 to have my daughter.  

I remember at the beginning being paid cash in a brown envelope ( I don't remember wage slips back then - or if I would have even looked at them) but I can't imagine I would have been asked about pensions aged 16. I honestly don't know if I ever paid into a pension for those 8 years.

Should I contact Boots the Chemist to enquire or would I have had known I had a pension even though I was only 16 when I started and forget the idea?

Thanks in advance.

Bimbly

Certainly couldn't hurt to check:

https://ahb-ukpensionportal.co.uk/get-in-touch/boots-pension-scheme

Marcon

socks_uk said:

I left school in 1980 age 16 and went straight into a 6 month youth opportunity training scheme at Boots the Chemist. At the end of the 6 months I was kept on as a full time employee until I left 1988 to have my daughter.  

I remember at the beginning being paid cash in a brown envelope ( I don't remember wage slips back then - or if I would have even looked at them) but I can't imagine I would have been asked about pensions aged 16. I honestly don't know if I ever paid into a pension for those 8 years.

Should I contact Boots the Chemist to enquire or would I have had known I had a pension even though I was only 16 when I started and forget the idea?

Thanks in advance.

Could you be more precise about when in 1988 you left - was it before 6 April 1988, or 6 April 1988 or later that year?

GunJack

I know boots had a DB scheme around that time (school friend still in it!!) but don't know the details - contacting boots would be your best bet...

socks_uk

Marcon said:

socks_uk said:

I left school in 1980 age 16 and went straight into a 6 month youth opportunity training scheme at Boots the Chemist. At the end of the 6 months I was kept on as a full time employee until I left 1988 to have my daughter.  

I remember at the beginning being paid cash in a brown envelope ( I don't remember wage slips back then - or if I would have even looked at them) but I can't imagine I would have been asked about pensions aged 16. I honestly don't know if I ever paid into a pension for those 8 years.

Should I contact Boots the Chemist to enquire or would I have had known I had a pension even though I was only 16 when I started and forget the idea?

Thanks in advance.

Could you be more precise about when in 1988 you left - was it before 6 April 1988, or 6 April 1988 or later that year?

Gosh, that's tricky.  My daughter was due 10th May 1988  but born 14th so it could have been a couple of days before or a couple of weeks later.  I don't remember exactly the date I started my maternity leave.  My daughter is 34 now.

Marcon

socks_uk said:

Marcon said:

socks_uk said:

I left school in 1980 age 16 and went straight into a 6 month youth opportunity training scheme at Boots the Chemist. At the end of the 6 months I was kept on as a full time employee until I left 1988 to have my daughter.  

I remember at the beginning being paid cash in a brown envelope ( I don't remember wage slips back then - or if I would have even looked at them) but I can't imagine I would have been asked about pensions aged 16. I honestly don't know if I ever paid into a pension for those 8 years.

Should I contact Boots the Chemist to enquire or would I have had known I had a pension even though I was only 16 when I started and forget the idea?

Thanks in advance.

Could you be more precise about when in 1988 you left - was it before 6 April 1988, or 6 April 1988 or later that year?

Gosh, that's tricky.  My daughter was due 10th May 1988  but born 14th so it could have been a couple of days before or a couple of weeks later.  I don't remember exactly the date I started my maternity leave.  My daughter is 34 now.

Unfortunately it could also be important! If you left before 6 April 1988, you would have needed five years of scheme membership to qualify for a 'deferred' pension. If you left on or after 6 April 1988, you'd only have needed two.

I'm in the 'check with the scheme' camp here in the hope you might have left just after 5 April... It's likely that the scheme's minimum age for joining was 21 - they certainly wouldn't have put you in the scheme as a 16 year old YOPS trainee, but fingers crossed you might have been enrolled in time to have the minimum membership requirement. Employers could make scheme membership a condition of employment at the time, so you could well have been. 

xylophone

Have you obtained a state pension forecast?

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

If you have never been in any other DB scheme, a COPE amount would be a clue.