Work pension advice

Pipthecat

In 20 years with the same company I only had three exchanges with my pension provider.  Access to the website, pension transfer and a post transfer request for a list of all my contributions.  Unless your circumstances are particularly complex I would not worry about the reviews.

sultan123

Bimbly said:

Paying into your workplace pension is the simplest method and an excellent, tax-efficient way to save for retirement. If they offer salary sacrifice, as you suggest, then that only makes the workplace pension more attractive.

Scottish Widows are fine. Even if their customer service is not as good as other places, your money will be invested the same. The potential for a bit more hassle at retirement is probably worth it compared to a definite lot more hassle now. 

Take a look at what investment options your workplace pension offers and make an informed choice. Unless you absolutely object to what's on offer, I can't see that much can be gained by going elsewhere.

Thanks have you used scottish widows?

sultan123

dunstonh said:

sultan123 said:

See this for example which is not trust pilot
https://www.reviews.io/company-reviews/store/scottishwidows

First one is a 1 star and is moaning that they keep sending forms.   She wants to update trustees and beneficiaries on the policy. So, what forms are what is required.   How does that justify a 1 star review?

Second one is about their telephone lines a month ago. That was in the period when they have issues with their telephone system.  I got through last week to request something with no delay.  The stuff I requested was received within 2 days.   So, relying on a month old review during a known issue is unreliable (and it appears the person rang the wrong number on that review)

third one indicates an issue but also potentially an unrealistic expectation about getting pensions cashed in

fourth one is moaning about refusing to combine pensions or allow drawdown.   That is not a valid complaint

fifth one doesnt give any information whatsoever and it could be a problem at SW or it could be an unrealistic expectation.

sixth one is moaning about SW not paying out on an policy where the person lied on it.

seventh one is moaning about an old Black Horse Life policy and the process to draw money.  Again, it appears to be an unrealistic expectation (e.g. moaning about bank statement validation when its normal to only accept proper bank statements which the review did not supply)

They are dealing with tens of thousands of people a day at their call centre and they get a handful of bad reviews on a site and a number of those reviews could easily be poor expectation or lack of understanding by the reviewer.

Do you happen to know if they allow transfers out into another pension provider? If so is there any charges?

sultan123

Sarahspangles said:

sultan123 said:

Looking for some advice. An offer for a role has been made where the base salary is £93000 + £1200 general allowance and a £6000 car allowance. There is bonus too which is 18%.

However, my challenge is as that takes me over the 100k threshold I will need to do salary sacrifice of both base salary and some part of bonus into work place pension. The provider of the pension is scottish widows though and reviews have been very bad on trustpilot etc.

Even though the offer is appealing, I feel a lot of money would be wasted through the pension provider potentially going of the reviews. Also thought of SIPP but again that would surely not work here in order to save on 60% tax.

Can I move funds to another provider every few months? Will there be a charge?

How the offered funds perform is more important than customer reviews about service. You can use Trustnet to compare how the SW funds perform against their class.

I had a SW workplace pension for a couple of years and the only time I needed to interact (with their website) was choosing the funds I wanted, and then later on clicking some buttons when I wanted to move the pot into the next employer’s workplace pension. The L&G website was much easier to use than SW’s which at the time was frankly terrible, but I don’t actually think the L&G funds performed as well as SWs. This possibly agrees https://www.ftadviser.com/pensions/2019/09/11/best-and-worst-workplace-pension-schemes-named/ and I left L&G because I wasn’t happy with their management of my personal data.

Have you asked the prospective employer if they would salsac into another scheme? Or I assume you can salsac enough to be an HRT taxpayer and then set up a SIPP and self-manage the rest of your investment bring in the SW pot later.

Thanks this is useful information. We are in early negotiations at present so not made any decisions on job yet.

What is salsac?

sultan123

wjr4 said:

I’ve never had an issue with Scottish Widows. 

That is good to hear. Do they allow transfer to other pension providers?

Sarahspangles

sultan123 said:

What is salsac?

Just shorthand for Salary Sacrifice

QrizB

My current occupational pension is with Scottish Widows (ex-Zurich).

The website lets me do everything I have wanted to do.

On the couple of occasions when I have had to contact Customer Services, they have been professional and have resolved my queries within a few days.

I have no interest in transferring out at this time, and can see no good reason to do so since the fees are reasonable and the investment options are broad.

sultan123

QrizB said:

My current occupational pension is with Scottish Widows (ex-Zurich).

The website lets me do everything I have wanted to do.

On the couple of occasions when I have had to contact Customer Services, they have been professional and have resolved my queries within a few days.

I have no interest in transferring out at this time, and can see no good reason to do so since the fees are reasonable and the investment options are broad.

Thst is reassuring. Is there option to transfer out though?

dunstonh

sultan123 said:

QrizB said:

My current occupational pension is with Scottish Widows (ex-Zurich).

The website lets me do everything I have wanted to do.

On the couple of occasions when I have had to contact Customer Services, they have been professional and have resolved my queries within a few days.

I have no interest in transferring out at this time, and can see no good reason to do so since the fees are reasonable and the investment options are broad.

Thst is reassuring. Is there option to transfer out though?

It is impossible for anyone here to answer without knowing what type of pension it is or what version.  SW offer multiple workplace or occupational pensions.

Grumpy_chap

sultan123 said:

Is there option to transfer out though?

You asked that specific question several times.
The answer given several times is to check the details of your exact scheme with your employer / Scottish Widows.

Most pension schemes will allow partial transfer out or transfer out and close.
The Scottish Widows websites indicates they offer partial transfer out or transfer out and close for most of their schemes.
No-one here can say whether the scheme you will be joining offers the transfer out that you desire.  
Often, if the transfer out is not available, that might be a good thing if it indicates guarantees that would be lost on transfer.

I think you may be over-thinking the situation.
The employer contributions are probably only available to the Scottish Widows scheme.
The Salary Sacrifice is available through the employer.
Take the job, make the desired level of SS.
Worry about what to do with the pension when you have accrued an amount in there and / or leave the employer.  At that point, you may decide to transfer whatever other pension you have into the Scottish Widows scheme rather than the other way around.

Good luck in the new job