When your pension has closed

muswellblue

Hi, 

My final salary pension was closed in 2015 for anymore contributions. I carried on in the same position but the company joined other companies to become a new one, and I then paid into a new defined contribution pension with a different company. 

I just had a random email from the final salary pension asking if I still had the same position or had I left the company. 

I messaged them that I still had the same position but under a different company name. 

I just wandered what it mattered to them whether I had still worked for the same company or not? Would I get better benefits if I still worked for the same company even though the pension was closed? 

Just curious as to the reasons they wanted to know. 

JoeCrystal

Have you asked them? What did they tell you regarding your benefits when they closed the final salary? Is the final salary taken over by your current employer for example.

dunstonh

I just wandered what it mattered to them whether I had still worked for the same company or not?

Probably record keeping tidying up.   

Would I get better benefits if I still worked for the same company even though the pension was closed? 

Not usually, but there could be AVCs or linked plans that could be utilised in conjunction with the main scheme.

I just had a random email from the final salary pension asking if I still had the same position or had I left the company. 

It is unlikely to be random as there would be a reason behind it.  And it would usually be from the current administrator and not the pension itself.       It is not uncommon for records to be cleaned if a new administrator has been appointed.

muswellblue

JoeCrystal said:

Have you asked them? What did they tell you regarding your benefits when they closed the final salary? Is the final salary taken over by your current employer for example.

The final salary wasn’t taken over by my current employer. When it closed I just got a statement of what it was worth, didn’t get a lot of information to be honest. 

I’ve got more info and updated forecasts the last few years as I’m now 52. 

I have emailed them to ask what difference it makes if I still worked for that company or not. 

DRS1

Did the paperwork say how the pension would be worked out - eg 1/60th of your pensionable salary on the date the scheme closed times the number of years of pensionable service at the date the scheme closed?

Or did it have some other calculation eg using pensionable salary at the date you leave the company?  That seems unlikely but it could be a reason they want to know if you are still with the company.

muswellblue

They never gave us much information at all when the pension closed. So I’m not sure how the pension was worked out. It’s like getting blood out of a stone trying to get info out of them, even now. 

They have contact me to say they were doing routine checks on my account. 

I did speak to my work who told me when the pension closed on 31st March 2015 that although my position never changed, the company name did change on the 1st April 2015. That was news to me and my colleagues, who thought we still worked for the old company for at least another couple of years, I’m sure our new pension scheme that started in April 2015 had the old company’s name. Will have to check out old paperwork. 

DRS1

Companies can change their names without becoming a new company.  They have a company number which stays the same.  So Joe Bloggs & Son Ltd (company number 1234567) can become Fred Bloggs Ltd (company number 1234567) and it is still the same company.  If that is what happened with your employer then your colleagues were indeed still employed by the same company after April 2015.  The name change really should not have had any impact on your membership of either of the pension schemes.

It might be different if the company or its business was sold (but I am guessing you would have known if something like that had happened.

GenX0212

Sounds like it could have been a merger/takeover. With the OP saying he started a DC scheme at the same time then most likely they closed the existing Final Salary to further accruals at that time? Depending how the scheme rules were amended there may still be some enduring rights associated to the original scheme but I would hazard a guess that the pension is in a deferred state.