Mis-advised re: opting out of SERPS

dunstonh

I opted out of SERPS in 1989. I was 18 years old and earning 5K at the time - it was my first full time post fter leaving college.

18 years old and you got the contracting out bonus the Govt gave at the time so it seems perfectly the right decision to make.

I was told on the telephohne that because I had opted out in the beginning that I was going to have a 38% shortfall compared to someone who didnt opt out.

You were lied to on the telephone. The best years to contract out were 1988 to 1996. Labour started reducing the rebates when they got into power (stealth tax) and that is when it became harder for the rebates to give a real bonus.

In that case I was able to claim £5000 for every 7 years that I opted out and that I would win 13-14K but they could comfortably say that I could double that!

They are telling lies again.

If I agreed to this then they wanted £580 up front and when I won my compensation they would bill me for 12% of the total I received and be refunded my £580.

Yep. Par for the course with the dodgy claims companies. Did they also tell you that pension redress gets paid into pensions and not in your pocket. So, lets say you are in the 1.5% of contracted out cases that have been mis-sold and lets say you get £15,000 redress, then you will have to find £1800 out of your own pocket to pay this company for the 2 minutes work involved in sending the adviser a Word template.

I have a feeling that I may have been mis-sold

Really? Why?

Your problem with that is as follows:
1 - you cannot be mis-sold unless you sought advice. No adviser, no mis-sale
2 - The firm that called you has broken the MoJ rules on cold calling. Claims companies are not allowed to cold call.
3 - The claims company have given you outright lies to try and get you to pay £580 up front. The chance of getting any payment above that is 1.5 in a 100.
4 - The FSA reviewed contracting out and found that mis-sales may have taken place in just 1.5% of cases. Typically these were those aged over 45. At 18, you are at the prime age to do it.

Here is the link to the FSA review:
http://www.fsa.gov.uk/pages/Library/Communication/PR/2007/059.shtml

here is another link from the FSA that confirms that in 1996, the review by the SIB found that virtually everyone that contracted out up to that point could expect to be financially better off. Completely at odds to this dodgy claims company telling you that you WILL get less.
http://www.fsa.gov.uk/Pages/Library/Other_publications/Pensions/2005/conpension.shtml
Here is another link to a pdf on the subject:
http://www.moneymadeclear.fsa.gov.uk/pdfs/s2p_wrongly_advised.pdf

That last pdf gives you a simple flow chart to see if you were likely to be mis-sold.



I use a network for my compliance and there stance is that they reject any complaints on contracting out automatically if the person was aged under 45 at the time of contracting out.

So, do you want to pay £580 for someone to send out a Word template which has virtually no chance of success?

fleurloriginale

Thank you for your reply dunstonh and thanks for the info.

The reason I thought I may have been mis-sold is the fact that I wasnt given any advice and just asked to sign the form.

Maybe its because these people have blinded me with science so to speak.

Would there be any reason to opt back in?

I also found out that a previous employer is with-holding my NI payments for 2001 - how would I go about sorting that out.

So many questions but I dont want to be duped!

Thanks again.

defender_of_the_weak

In any walk of life there are the good, bad and crooks. In the financial claims industry I'm the good, most of the rest are bad and this lot sound like crooks.

Dunston is quite right, age 18 and contracted out, perfectly fine. Even if the sale was a bit of a sheep dip you have almost certainly not made any financial loss, so its a waste of your time and money. Actually it looks like a con ( am I allowed to say that?)

dunstonh

I was hoping you would jump in DOTW. And for the record, DOTW's company does have a good track record of honesty and integrity that has been reported in the media as a good example of a claims company.

I reckon the office manager either had an old agency himself or was passing them on to an adviser to put through execution only and getting a backhander for it.

fleurloriginale

Thanks for your replies guys.

They have just called me back and when I mentioned a few of the things that they were NOT allowed to do then they just got shirty with me :mad:

dunstonh

That tells you a lot about the integrity of that company.

BTW, in case you want evidence of what they can and cannot do, here is a link: http://www.advicenow.org.uk/go/feature/feature_346.html?pkgid=34

Near the bottom is says:

You should be wary of dealing with anyone who:

• uninvited, calls at your door, phones you or comes up to you in the street or visits you in hospital trying to persuade you to make a claim. This is called 'cold calling in person' and is banned under the new rules