Serps

Rob_Young · 16 August 2016 at 10:09AM

I am . Approaching retirement, and I got a government pension statement,and my Cope amount is twice the amount that my pension company says it is and the Government said they will be reducing my pension by £11 p.w The company I worked for I had A seasonal contract for eight years(8months a year ) when I changed jobs within the company and became a full time employee I then qualified for the pension scheme which gave 16 years pension. I askied at the time whether I could add my 8 years seasonal work to my pension.I was told I couldn't because there was a break in service each year.I have since found out that during the 8 years seasonal I had been paying into the pension scheme the National Insurance reduced payment.I have been paying into a scheme that I am told I have no claim on and I will be paying back £11 to the state for the privilege of doing this.Can anyone tell me whether this is right

p00hsticks · 16 August 2016 at 10:26AM

Rob_Young wrote: »

I am . Approaching retirement, and I got a government pension statement,and my Cope amount is twice the amount that my pension company says it is and the Government said they will be reducing my pension by £11 p.w The company I worked for I had A seasonal contract for eight years(8months a year ) when I changed jobs within the company and became a full time employee I then qualified for the pension scheme which gave 16 years pension. I askied at the time whether I could add my 8 years seasonal work to my pension.I was told I couldn't because there was a break in service each year.I have since found out that during the 8 years seasonal I had been paying into the pension scheme the National Insurance reduced payment.I have been paying into a scheme that I am told I have no claim on and I will be paying back £11 to the state for the privilege of doing this.Can anyone tell me whether this is right

Can you provide more detail on what your forecast said - what pension figure was quoted and how many NI years you have been creditted with ? It's possbile that under the transitional rules for the new State Pension that was introduced on 6/4/16 your "starting amount" is based on the old rules rather than the new, in which case the COPE figure doesn't matter.

Also , you seem to be saying that you were only "contracted out" (paid a lower rate of NI) when you were a seasonal worker but you imply that you weren't actually in a pension schene during that time ? If so then you shouldn't have been contracted out.

And were you "contracted out" once you became a full time employee and member of the pension scheme as this could explain the COPE figure ? (If you look at an old payslip, an NI category of 'D' means contacted out ansd 'A' means contracted in )

xylophone · 16 August 2016 at 4:37PM

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/512799/your-state-pension-statement-explained-dwp042.pdf

You are male and approaching your 65th birthday?

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/447195/new-state-pension--effect-of-being-contracted-out.pdf

For Rebate Derived Amount read COPE.

Are you saying that even though you were not in the company pension scheme for eight years you were still contracted out during that period??

How many years of NI do you actually have?

Serps

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