Opted out of Serps

BlkCats

Has anyone been told that this went into a separate pot and that you could claim this back and has anyone done this? Also does this effect your state pension

DE_612183

it should have gone to another pension provider - someone like prudential.

it shouldn't impact your state pension - but check the forecast anyway on the gov site.

dunstonh

Has anyone been told that this went into a separate pot 

Yes.  That is the way contracting out of SERPS worked when using a personal pension. 
Your contributions paid from your own money went into a segment called non-protected rights (or ordinary rights if you go back further in time)
Your contracted out rebates went into a segment called protected rights.

When contracting out was abolished, protected rights were reclassified as non-protected rights, and some providers amalgamated the two segments into one (often done if you transferred your pensions).  Others kept the segments separated but renamed the protected rights to former protected rights.

and that you could claim this back and has anyone done this?

Not sure what you mean by claim it back as you would have a pension fund made up of former protected rights that you can take in the normal way.

Its not something you claim.   i.e. if your former protected rights pension fund value is £50,000 then you take benefits from that fund using the appropriate method.  

 Also does this effect your state pension

It had no impact on the basic state pension as you were only contracting out of SERPs or S2P.   That was the whole point of contracting out with a personal pension.  Instead of SERPS/S2P getting paid by the state, you could build up a pot of money for you to use in the way you want at the time you wanted it.

Note that if you contracted out using a final salary/defined benefit scheme, then there is no pot of money. Instead, you paid lower national insurance and received increased benefits within the scheme pension.

Both methods were called contracting out, but they did it in a different way.

xylophone

Opted out of Serps

Contracted out into an occupational or personal pension?

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/new-state-pension-if-youve-been-contracted-out-of-additional-state-pension/the-new-state-pension-transition-and-contracting-out-fact-sheet

You have not yet reached State Pension Age?

Have you obtained a stste pension forecast?

Marcon

xylophone said:

Opted out of Serps

You have not yet reached State Pension Age?

Have you obtained a stste pension forecast?

Does seem to be a bit of a tendency on this forum to ask questions in 'Have you not...' format. It's a lot easier to answer the simpler question 'Have you reached State Pension Age' (and increases the chances of an accurate response!).

dunstonh

Not that it really matters as I suspect this will be one of those threads that never gets followed up 

BlkCats

I haven't yet reached retirement age but trying to find all my options. Thank you for all your comments I am now trying to find out which pension the serps was paid into. I am having trouble getting through on 0800 731 0193

Marcon

See https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6267734/is-there-a-really-detailed-online-method-to-check-nics/p1 and follow the steps suggested in my post of 15 May 2021. I'm afraid you'll need to read the thread to understand why that's going to help you, but it might still be quicker than trying to get through on the phone!

xylophone

I haven't yet reached retirement age but trying to find all my options.

State Pension Forecast?

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

What exactly does yours show?