Contracted out of state pension scheme

molerat

Dazed_and_C0nfused said:

Personally I would go with option 4.

Option 3 would likely cause further confusion with some people not understanding that £203.85/week + company pension is better than £238/week

COPE was a factor in determining your new State Pension starting amount back in 2016 but really means nothing else.

Given you have clearly accessed and read your State Pension forecast in some detail I don't know why you think 1 & 2 could be possibilities 🤔

I would go with improving the wording around the effect of COPE to something like "COPE was only used to calculate your starting amount for the new pension.  It will not affect your pension amount and has been taken into account in the figures shown"

Without it we would not in some cases definitively be able to deduce whether pre 2016 contributions are viable or not.  Of course from April 2025 it is all academic as it will then become a truly meaningless figure.

german_keeper

I have a vague recollection of a post on a thread from quite some time ago that the COPE info had been left on as a trigger for people who might have forgotten about an old DB pension. Can't remember if it was a definitive answer or just a suggestion. Presumably it would be feasible for the old pension to then preclude a claim to Pension Credit.