Net Pay and Tax Relief

topyam

I have three pensions from my previous employment many years ago.

Pension A - Trust Pension - approx £25k - yearly fee approx £50
Pension B - Trust Pension - approx 15k - yearly fee approx £15
Pension C - Corporate Stakeholder Pension Plan - approx 10k - yearly fee approx £50

I haven't paid into these since I left work. 

I am not working atm. 

I am thinking that I should be paying into a pension... At least the min amount for the government relief anyways... (£2880 for £3600).

It turns out that I can't pay into Pensions B and C. So I seem to have no option but to leave them grow...

I can pay into Pension A. It is however a net pay pension. So my understanding is that I would have to pay in the full £3600 and claim back.
Does anybody know how this process works?

It's so hard to know if my pensions are good ones. Do people have certain things that they would say make a pension a good one? 

Should I consolidate, or are they better left as-is?
Are my fees higher or lower than normal?

Marcon

topyam said:

I have three pensions from my previous employment many years ago.

Pension A - Trust Pension - approx £25k - yearly fee approx £50
Pension B - Trust Pension - approx 15k - yearly fee approx £15
Pension C - Corporate Stakeholder Pension Plan - approx 10k - yearly fee approx £50

I haven't paid into these since I left work. 

I am not working atm. 

I am thinking that I should be paying into a pension... At least the min amount for the government relief anyways... (£2880 for £3600).

It turns out that I can't pay into Pensions B and C. So I seem to have no option but to leave them grow...

I can pay into Pension A. It is however a net pay pension. So my understanding is that I would have to pay in the full £3600 and claim back.
Does anybody know how this process works?

It's so hard to know if my pensions are good ones. Do people have certain things that they would say make a pension a good one? 

Should I consolidate, or are they better left as-is?
Are my fees higher or lower than normal?

The two trust-based schemes might decline further contributions once you've left the employ of the relevant employer, but a stakeholder scheme is a personal (contract based) pension, so I wonder why you can't pay into that? 

A net pay arrangement isn't usually helpful to a non-earner, since if your income is below the threshold to pay tax, you won't normally benefit from tax relief. Is this one of the master trusts - be helpful if you could name them?

You could leave them where they are, but you could transfer/consolidate if you wished.