Did I opt out of SERPS?

GeForceuk

So, a friend asked me this question the other day, "did you opt out of SERPS" to which I replied, "I have no idea".  As age progresses I have been looking around the web at how do I find out if I did opt out or not.  There are plenty of companies advertising their services and obviously offering their services to investigate and move your pension but I am very wary of the potential to 'loose the lot'.  Can someone please direct me to how I find out if I did opt out and how do I find out please.  I have seen plenty of "just contact HMRC" but what address and what information do I provide up front.
Any assistance will be appreciated.

Sarahspangles

Do you have access to your HMRC account/app? If so you click on ‘State Pension’ and if you were contracted out the following wording will appear in your State Pension Summary:

You’ve been in a contracted-out pension scheme
Like most people, you were contracted out of part of the State Pension.

There are other ways to deduce this but what matters is your HMRC record.

eskbanker

Best bet will be to obtain your forecast state pension entitlement:

https://www.gov.uk/check-state-pension

To a certain extent it doesn't really matter whether or not you contracted out, in that your forecast tells you what you need to know about what you've accumulated and whether there's anything that can be done from here....

Marcon

eskbanker said:

Best bet will be to obtain your forecast state pension entitlement:

https://www.gov.uk/check-state-pension

To a certain extent it doesn't really matter whether or not you contracted out, in that your forecast tells you what you need to know about what you've accumulated and whether there's anything that can be done from here....

The snag with that entirely sensible idea is that if OP doesn't know if they contracted out, but they did so, and by means of setting up a personal pension (quaintly described in the jargon as an 'appropriate' personal pension, however unsuitable!), the forecast won't tell them which pension provider they used.

OP - see my post of 21 May 2021: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6267734/is-there-a-really-detailed-online-method-to-check-nics#latest

Have a read of the thread - sorry it's so long! - and you'll see why that might also be a sensible thing to check, even if your state pension forecast makes no mention of being contracted out at any point. The two sets of records don't invariably tally, although they of course they should...

dunstonh

So, a friend asked me this question the other day, "did you opt out of SERPS" to which I replied, "I have no idea".

You wouldn't have opted out.  However, you may have contracted out.  (opting out means something different)

 Can someone please direct me to how I find out if I did opt out and how do I find out please.

Your contracting out/in history is visible on Government Gateway via the state pension forecast.  Do you have a Government Gateway account?   That will at least show you the years you were contracted out.  You can then tie that in with your employment history.

If you were ever a member of a final salary scheme/defined benefit scheme, then you were almost certainly contracted out during that period.   If you were self employed, you could not contract out in the years you were self employed.   If you were employed and contracted out via an occupational DC pension, then it would have been part of that pension.    if you contracted out via a personal pension, they would have sent you an annual statement (unless you failed to update your address).

eskbanker

Marcon said:

eskbanker said:

Best bet will be to obtain your forecast state pension entitlement:

https://www.gov.uk/check-state-pension

To a certain extent it doesn't really matter whether or not you contracted out, in that your forecast tells you what you need to know about what you've accumulated and whether there's anything that can be done from here....

The snag with that entirely sensible idea is that if OP doesn't know if they contracted out, but they did so, and by means of setting up a personal pension (quaintly described in the jargon as an 'appropriate' personal pension, however unsuitable!), the forecast won't tell them which pension provider they used.

Indeed - much depends on what the ultimate underlying question is, i.e. if "did I contract out of SERPS?" is leading to 'if so, where did those contributions go?' then that's one thing, but if it was more about 'if so, how did that affect my state pension entitlement?' then that's a different question!  I assumed the second meaning but the first is plausible too....