Boots Pension defined benefit

Hoenir

Pat38493 said:

Hoenir said:

Projections are simply estimates based on present circumstances and on future trends. Inflation cannot even be forecast accurately month to month. Let alone over 5 or 10 years ahead. Nor the health of the overall group pension scheme. 

Once the pension is transferred to Legal and General and you have your own individual plan. The impact of early taking of the benefits should become more transparent. 

It's a DB pension I think.  If it's a deferred DB pension, then in theory the administrators should be able to tell you a correct amount at your normal retirement date.  

Unless the scheme has a fixed annual uplift written into the rules for deferred members. Then a future pension figure years ahead can only ever be a projection nothing more. 

xylophone

Members cannot be worse off in terms of benefits promised under the rules. 

Indeed and as confirmed here,

https://www.wba-boots-pensions.co.uk/Uploads/Documents/00/00/10/74/DocumentFile_FILE/Website-announcement.pdf

xylophone

then in theory the administrators should be able to tell you a correct amount at your normal retirement date.  

As it appears that GMP is revalued in deferment at Fixed Rate, that part should be no problem.

But the excess is index linked - the Administrator doesn't have a crystal ball......

Tommyjw

I know of a Scheme that long long ago for many years upon a member leaving provide normal retirement estimates using a 5% estimated annual inflation. Fast forward to these days when we are administrators for the Scheme and get calls from people mad as to why their projection from 1990 and 30 years of 5% inflation assumption is so different to reality...

molerat

xylophone said:

Members cannot be worse off in terms of benefits promised under the rules. 

Indeed and as confirmed here,

https://www.wba-boots-pensions.co.uk/Uploads/Documents/00/00/10/74/DocumentFile_FILE/Website-announcement.pdf

Unfortunately that is only the basic announcement, the personal notification goes on .........

The no reduction from 60 was discretionary.

Pat38493

Hoenir said:

Pat38493 said:

Hoenir said:

Projections are simply estimates based on present circumstances and on future trends. Inflation cannot even be forecast accurately month to month. Let alone over 5 or 10 years ahead. Nor the health of the overall group pension scheme. 

Once the pension is transferred to Legal and General and you have your own individual plan. The impact of early taking of the benefits should become more transparent. 

It's a DB pension I think.  If it's a deferred DB pension, then in theory the administrators should be able to tell you a correct amount at your normal retirement date.  

Unless the scheme has a fixed annual uplift written into the rules for deferred members. Then a future pension figure years ahead can only ever be a projection nothing more. 

I am not sure what you mean - do you mean that the rules state that the pension is uplifted in deferment by inflation + x%?  If it’s a fixed amount, this is surely easy to calculate as you don’t need to know inflation?

If the pension increases according to statutory factors, they should be able to tell you exactly what the pension would be if you were reaching NRA today (real terms), and then if necessary tell you - this figure has been updated by an assumed x% per year for unknown future periods.

xylophone

The no reduction from 60 was discretionary.

They were entitled to state that there would be no change to the benefits if the "at the Trustees' discretion" clause was always in the scheme rules.

It would appear (see second link in my  first post)  that it had been accepted that an application for unreduced benefits at 60 would go through on the nod but as I commented to the OP

which states that benefits may be taken unreduced from age 60 BUT this is not the scheme's own guide - do you have a copy of the guide?

it is necessary to go back to the  Scheme Guide (or better  yet, get a copy of the Scheme Rules, the ultimate authority).

bjorn_toby_wilde

As a Boots pensioner, I can confirm that the unreduced benefits at 60 were always discretionary and the option has been removed as part of the transfer to L&G. The detail is all in the letter that we were sent this week.

That wasn’t really the OP’s question though.  She’s aware of the removal of the unreduced early retirement option.

I have my scheme booklet and it states “Preserved pensions in the Boots Scheme are guaranteed to increase by 5% a year (or the annual increase in the Retail Price Index, if less)”

That’s why I asked if she has any statements showing the value of her preserved pension. This would give a better idea of what she should be due.

xylophone

I have my scheme booklet and it states “Preserved pensions in the Boots Scheme are guaranteed to increase by 5% a year (or the annual increase in the Retail Price Index, if less)”

But does this apply to the GMP portion of the preserved  (deferred) pension?

It would appear (but this can be checked with the Administrator), that the GMP increases at Fixed Rate.

Depending on when in 1997 the OP left the scheme, the rate would be either 7%  (pre 6 April) or 6.25%.

 At that date, on the statutory basis, the excess over GMP would increase by RPI capped at 5%.

Hoenir

bjorn_toby_wilde said:

I have my scheme booklet and it states “Preserved pensions in the Boots Scheme are guaranteed to increase by 5% a year (or the annual increase in the Retail Price Index, if less)”

That's a common provision for older DB pension schemes that were ravaged by inflation in the 70's. Capping the liability.