pension has me confused?

homealone_2

i joined a housing association back in 2002 and when stakeholder came about i joined it through them. firstly i have been off sick since 2003 and am being paid £500 a month from them through an income protection plan so am not sure if i should pay more than the few pound a month they are taking now. also before joining them i worked for a building society for 3 years so where is that pension gone and should i be trying to claim it back or transfer it???? will not be returning to work as now disabled so we opted to pay bit more on hubbys pension when offered should we be increasing that even more> hope someone out there can help as have no idea where or who to turn to

seven-day-weekend

You need to contact your respective Pension Providers (at the Housing Association and the Building Society). Your BS one won't have disappeared, but you need to find out from them whether you can transfer it as they have different rules depending on what type of pension it is.

More immediately important, imho, is to make sure your State Pension is protected. Contact the Pensions Service.
http://www.thepensionservice.gov.uk/contactus/futurepensioncentre.asp

If you are in receipt of Child Benefit, Carers Allowance or various other State Benefits, your Stae Pension will be protected, but it is best to find out.

Hope this helps.

EdInvestor

homealone wrote: »

also before joining them i worked for a building society for 3 years so where is that pension gone and should i be trying to claim it back or transfer it????

Was it a final salary scheme?If so, almost always best to leave it where it is as it will be increased every year to keep pace with inflation.

Agree that you need to check your state pension is being funded.

You won't end up with much from the stakeholder if you're only putting in a few pounds a week.Better to save that money in a cash ISA where you can access it if necessary for emergencies.

If the pensions are both small when you're 60 you may be able to get them out in cash.

Dithering_Dad

You won't end up with much from the stakeholder if you're only putting in a few pounds a week.Better to save that money in a cash ISA where you can access it if necessary for emergencies.

I'm sorry, but I just can't imagine a bigger emergency than spending your retirement in poverty, eeking out a living on the government stipend (aka state pension).

Keep the stakeholder because it's not included in any benefit means testing and you also won't be able to dip into it. A pension is for retirement, hence you can't touch it until retirement age. ISAs are savings and can be used to buy cars, houses, holidays and to bail you out if you have any temporary emergencies. Once used , you never get them back.

Use them to supplement your main pension, not to replace it.

EdInvestor

Homealone is disabled and won't be returning to work.Thus when she retires she will very likely be claiming pension credit, which also passports through to other benefits such as free rent and council tax.

Making very small pension contributions will be a waste of money as she will simply find that her pension credit is cut by the amount of the pension she has saved.

There are many people in this borderline area where it is not worthwhile to save due to the way the tax/benefits/pension system works, unfortunately.

Retired_I.F.A.

Which fuels the reason to transfer her retained benefits into a personal pension and go for the riskiest/potential funds available.

Dithering_Dad

EdInvestor wrote: »

Homealone is disabled and won't be returning to work.Thus when she retires she will very likely be claiming pension credit, which also passports through to other benefits such as free rent and council tax.

Making very small pension contributions will be a waste of money as she will simply find that her pension credit is cut by the amount of the pension she has saved.

There are many people in this borderline area where it is not worthwhile to save due to the way the tax/benefits/pension system works, unfortunately.

But isn't Pension Credit being phased out? Wasn't the whole point of lowering the NI contribution limit from 44 years for a pull pension to 30 years to make sure that most people will receive a full state pension and so pension credit will no longer be required?

In the scenario of most people getting full state pensions, with no means-tested 'top ups' required, having additonal pension provision outside the state schemes becomes once again an advantage. Or am I being naive?

homealone_2

seven-day-weekend wrote: »

You need to contact your respective Pension Providers (at the Housing Association and the Building Society). Your BS one won't have disappeared, but you need to find out from them whether you can transfer it as they have different rules depending on what type of pension it is.

More immediately important, imho, is to make sure your State Pension is protected. Contact the Pensions Service.
http://www.thepensionservice.gov.uk/contactus/futurepensioncentre.asp

If you are in receipt of Child Benefit, Carers Allowance or various other State Benefits, your Stae Pension will be protected, but it is best to find out.

Hope this helps.

thanks, will contact them as for the protection yes i am in receipt of child benefit. i also contacted them many years ago to find out if credits would still be pai into pension for me as not working and they said yes as i was at home raising children. could not go back to work till youngest was 8 as had severe learning and behavioural problems and they said i was protected. just wondered whether i should try if poss to make more payments into fund now?