Contracted Out - advice needed please

xylophone

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?

What makes you think that being contracted out would mean that you didn't qualify for a "full year"?

eastcorkram

artyboy said:

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.

Wouldn't surprise me if loads of them are wrong. I know people on here check this sort of stuff, but I'm not sure many do out there in the real world. 
I'll get my OH to re check hers . She checked it a few weeks ago, and it was at the max and couldn't be improved etc, but I'm not sure if COPE was mentioned. She certainly didn't mention it. She's 61, Been a teacher since 2004, and still working.

Novice_investor101

artyboy said:

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.

My forecast is missing the COPE amount too. I thought that was odd because it used to show. But I’m 41 & have a full NI record from age 16. I was in a DB scheme until Nov2015 (12 or 13 years in the scheme) & will probably be working another 25 years so may end up with a full state pension anyway? 

RoysV

artyboy said:

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.

Could be the third relating to the official forecast page having glitches/being incorrect. Scroll down to 'Sudden missing year NI payment'

Sarahspangles

artyboy said:

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.

Pre-2016 I have 20 years in which I was contracted out, which show as Full, plus another 9 which count. Post-2016 another 8 years take me to a full State Pension. That’s 37 years in total, which I’ll achieve working this year so I won’t need to pay any voluntary contributions. My understanding is that a year is Full so long as you earn 52 x the LEL for NI. To check whether I did achieve that in those part years I worked either side of Uni I’d need historic NI tables.

Or does the fact I need more than 35 years confirm that I’ve had to make up a couple of years?  

artyboy

xylophone said:

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?

What makes you think that being contracted out would mean that you didn't qualify for a "full year"?

I freely admit to not being an expert, but a common theme seems to be not having 'full' years as a result of being contracted out. If it's more nuanced then happy to be corrected, but that really was the point of my question!

molerat

A "full year" is for the basic state pension, as long as you make the 52 weeks equivalent contributions you will get a year.  You were contracted out of the second state pension which gave an additional amount on top of the basic. So with 30 years of pre 2016 contributions you were guaranteed to get, at 2023 rates, £156.18.  Thinking you are not getting "full" years when contracted out is a misunderstanding of how the system works.

xylophone

If it's more nuanced then happy to be corrected, but that really was the point of my question!

See

 https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/new-state-pension-if-youve-been-contracted-out-of-additional-state-pension/the-new-state-pension-transition-and-contracting-out-fact-sheet

People who were contracted out  were contracted out of  SERPS/S2P..

They still paid NI  at the contracted out (lower) rate to achieve qualifying (full) years for Basic State Pension and other benefits.

In the case of S2P, it was possible for moderate earners to accrue some additional pension even if contracted out.

jackieblack

Update:
After contacting Future Pensions about this, I have today received in the post a State Pension Forecast stating that I’ve been contracted out in the past and giving me a COPE figure. I have checked online and this has also been updated.
The State Pension forecast amount is unchanged.

jackieblack

jackieblack said:

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?

So… (finally) my COPE estimate is £19.82 per week 
Is anyone able to advise what effect stopping work 7 years early (and thus not having NI deductions from salary) might have on my State Pension, please?
Thanks