Contracted Out - advice needed please

jackieblack

Hi
According to my State Pension Forecast on the Government Gateway I’m due a full pension (from Sept 2035), but I’ve realised that there’s no mention of having been Contracted Out, which I understand I would have been from Dec 2002 to April 2016 as a member of the LGPS 🤷🏻‍♀️

Am I mistaken/misunderstanding something?

[Deleted User]

It may well be the case that if you continue to pay NI until 2035 you will qualify for the full state pension in any case. Contracting out ended in 2016.

jackieblack

Oh, ok, thank you (sorry, I thought I’d read that it ended in April 2016)
I’m planning to leave work early, probably Sept 2028, so may not be paying NI until 2035… is there any way of checking what the effect of that might be?
 I’m trying to avoid getting any unexpected shocks that could derail future plans being made based on the information I’ve got now…

jem16

jackieblack said:

Oh, ok, thank you (sorry, I thought I’d read that it ended in April 2016)
I’m planning to leave work early, probably Sept 2028, so may not be paying NI until 2035… is there any way of checking what the effect of that might be?
 I’m trying to avoid getting any nasty shocks that could derail plans made based on the information I’ve got now…

If you post some details of your forecast - all the lines and not just the top figure - along with how many years you had up till April 2016, how many post 2016 and how much your COPE is then we should be able to give you some help on this.

jackieblack

jem16 said:

jackieblack said:

Oh, ok, thank you (sorry, I thought I’d read that it ended in April 2016)
I’m planning to leave work early, probably Sept 2028, so may not be paying NI until 2035… is there any way of checking what the effect of that might be?
 I’m trying to avoid getting any nasty shocks that could derail plans made based on the information I’ve got now…

If you post some details of your forecast - all the lines and not just the top figure - along with how many years you had up till April 2016, how many post 2016 and how much your COPE is then we should be able to give you some help on this.

Thank you
This is what it says:

I have 39 full years, every year starting 1984-85, so I think that’s 32 years up to April 2016, and 7 years since. 

I can’t find anything about COPE… where might find this, please?

molerat

There should be a mention of contracting out a bit further down the page.

On a positive note, anyone retiring from around 2025 with 30 years pre 2016 and a full contribution history since should receive the full £203.85.

jackieblack

molerat said:

There should be a mention of contracting out a bit further down the page.

On a positive note, anyone retiring from around 2025 with 30 years pre 2016 and a full contribution history since should receive the full £203.85.

That’s what I was looking for but there isn’t anything else. The rest of the page (to the bottom) looks like this

molerat

It should come just after the "view your national insurance record" and before "putting off claiming".  To get it corrected you need to contact HMRC and hopefully they will get it fixed quickly although there is no immediate problem for you.  There was a another post a day or so back of a teacher with the same problem.  Something very rare, hardly ever seen it on here, then a couple in as many days.

£203.85 is the most you can get

You cannot improve your forecast any more.

If you’re working you may still need to pay National Insurance contributions until xxxxxxxxxxx as they fund other state benefits and the NHS.

View your National Insurance record

Your forecast may be different if there are any changes to your National Insurance information. There is more about this in the terms and conditions.

You’ve been in a contracted-out pension scheme

Like most people, you were contracted out of part of the State Pension.

Putting off claiming

You can put off claiming your State Pension from  xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx. Doing this may mean you get extra State Pension when you do come to claim it. The extra amount, along with your State Pension, forms part of your taxable income.

jackieblack

molerat said:

It should come just after the "view your national insurance record".  To get it corrected you need to contact HMRC and hopefully they will get it fixed quickly although there is no immediate problem for you.  There was a another post a day or so back of a teacher with the same problem.  Something very rare, hardly ever seen it on here, then a couple in as many days.

Thank you 
Yes, I saw that post yesterday and it’s what made me go and check (I hadn’t realised that I would have been Contracted Out too). I just wasn’t 100% sure if I’d understood it correctly.

I’ll try writing to them. As you say, no immediate problem, but I’d prefer to sort it out sooner rather than later in case there’s something I need to do about it.

 Many thanks for your help 

xylophone

"Contracting Out" for DB schemes did indeed end 5/4/2016.

If you were a member of TPS pre that date you were indeed contracted out.

You can obtain your record of contracted out years/pension schemes here

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

artyboy

This is the 2nd thread in 2 days where there's a suggestion that the official pension forecast might not be correct where people were contracted out. Hopefully not the tip of an iceberg...

Related question from me though - is there a situation where despite being contracted out, a person's earnings could have been high enough that they'd still have paid enough NI to hit whatever 'absolute' threshold existed to qualify for a full year? At least during the period where there were uncapped 1-2% contribution rates.