SERP. How do I find out

Nichorj

Hello, can anyone help me please and point me in the right direction. It appears that both my husband and I have been opted out. I have all the details of my pensions
and currently have my ‘opted out’ pension details. My husband has looked on the HMRC website and it appears that he opted out too. He has no idea when or who he would have been working for; he doesn’t even remember doing it. How do we find out where this money is and how we access it? How do we find this lost money and who has been managing it? I don’t know where to start. Or is this a mistake and a standard message on HMRC. Thank you to anyone who can help. 

Dazed_and_C0nfused

Nichorj said:

Hello, can anyone help me please and point me in the right direction. It appears that both my husband and I have been opted out. I have all the details of my pensions
and currently have my ‘opted out’ pension details. My husband has looked on the HMRC website and it appears that he opted out too. He has no idea when or who he would have been working for; he doesn’t even remember doing it. How do we find out where this money is and how we access it? How do we find this lost money and who has been managing it? I don’t know where to start. Or is this a mistake and a standard message on HMRC. Thank you to anyone who can help. 

What (non State) pensions does he have?

It could be as simple as he's entitled to a Teachers/NHS/local government/civil service pension etc and that's it.  No separate pot of money.

sammyjammy

Do you both have defined benefit pensions from a previous employer?

p00hsticks

I presume you mean 'contracted out ' - 'opted out' has an entirely different meaning in the pensions world.

Those who were 'contracted out' paid a lower percentage of NI compared to those who were 'contracted in' and were generally in some sort of company or private pension scheme, whereas those who were 'contracted in' instead were accumulating some sort of additional state pension (SERPS / S2P).

It wasn't  usually your choice to be contracted in or out - if your employer offered you a pension scheme then you'd be automatically contracted out on joining it. 

So - as those above have said - do either of you have some other pension with a previous employer ?

Contracting in and out was done away with a part of the pension reforms that saw the introduction of the new State Pension in 2016

[ 'Opting out' means choosing not to participate in a workplace pension scheme ]       

xylophone

Try SAR as here?


https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6267734/is-there-a-really-detailed-online-method-to-check-nics/p1

dunstonh

 How do we find this lost money and who has been managing it? 

What makes you think it was lost?

Were either of you public sector workers at some point?  Or with a traditional employer with a final salary pension?
Do you have any personal pensions?

Sarahspangles

You said in another recent thread that your husband has worked for the same company for 25 years and is a higher rate tax payer. He may have had a DB pension with another employer before this job, or the current company may have operated a DB pension when he first joined but have now switched. He must have details of his current pension that you could look at to start with.

Marcon

Nichorj said:

Hello, can anyone help me please and point me in the right direction. It appears that both my husband and I have been opted out. I have all the details of my pensions
and currently have my ‘opted out’ pension details. My husband has looked on the HMRC website and it appears that he opted out too. He has no idea when or who he would have been working for; he doesn’t even remember doing it. How do we find out where this money is and how we access it? How do we find this lost money and who has been managing it? I don’t know where to start. Or is this a mistake and a standard message on HMRC. Thank you to anyone who can help. 

Maybe post a screenshot of those details here (with all personal information redacted)?