Pension age worries

[DreamDisney]

Originally Posted by dubletrub

My pension kicks in at the same retirement age as my state pension which at the moment is 67.

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What kind of pension is it? Defined Benefit (ie final salary) or Defined Contribution (ie personal pension)?

You can set the retirement age of most personal pensions, hence my question.

[sophiepop]

My husband opted out and he recently received a statement from the company which showed a big fat zero balance, so how would this work alongside the state pension?

I always thought that as long as you had 35 years of contributions then you would get the full state pension?

[neilhd]

How do I find out if I was/am contracted out?

I vaguely remember something being mentioned about that when I first had a pension aged 18 (back in about 1996), but I had no idea what they were talking about at the time and just kind of went with things. No idea if I was in our out. I had completely forgotten about it until I saw this thread.

[Guest]

Originally Posted by neilhd

How do I find out if I was/am contracted out?

I vaguely remember something being mentioned about that when I first had a pension aged 18 (back in about 1996), but I had no idea what they were talking about at the time and just kind of went with things. No idea if I was in our out. I had completely forgotten about it until I saw this thread.

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If you get a pension statement via gov.uk it will say on there if you were contracted out and how many more years you need for full state pension

[tspill]

Originally Posted by neilhd

How do I find out if I was/am contracted out?

I vaguely remember something being mentioned about that when I first had a pension aged 18 (back in about 1996), but I had no idea what they were talking about at the time and just kind of went with things. No idea if I was in our out. I had completely forgotten about it until I saw this thread.

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It sort of doesn't matter whether you were or weren't contracted in or out. It is what it is.
What you need to do is log on to the goverenment gateway and this will give you all the details you need and will tell you what your SP will be and whether you need additional years (which you can purchase if you cant work them).
start here gov.uk/government/organi...evenue-customs.
You can login and register on that page.

[Guest]

Originally Posted by DreamDisney

What kind of pension is it? Defined Benefit (ie final salary) or Defined Contribution (ie personal pension)?

You can set the retirement age of most personal pensions, hence my question.

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The public service pension reforms in 2015 switched from a defined benefit to a career average scheme. The normal pension age for the new pensions is linked by law to the state pension age. So you get nothing at all until you are also eligible for your state pension under the new scheme. If the SP age goes up there will be a lot of very unhappy people as a result I think.

It may be related to this.

[BevS97]

Originally Posted by tspill

It sort of doesn't matter whether you were or weren't contracted in or out. It is what it is.
What you need to do is log on to the goverenment gateway and this will give you all the details you need and will tell you what your SP will be and whether you need additional years (which you can purchase if you cant work them).
start here gov.uk/government/organi...evenue-customs.
You can login and register on that page.

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I was contracted out, my forecast shows I will get a full state pension but I won't get the additional portion which for me is £27 a week.

I hope that my pension that I was contracted out for is worth at least that but there is definitely no guarantee...

[MrsBC]

Originally Posted by neilhd

How do I find out if I was/am contracted out?

I vaguely remember something being mentioned about that when I first had a pension aged 18 (back in about 1996), but I had no idea what they were talking about at the time and just kind of went with things. No idea if I was in our out. I had completely forgotten about it until I saw this thread.

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Set up a Personal Tax Account online and it shows you everything you've paid etc since starting work and gives you a projected state pension and date.
gov.uk/personal-tax-account

[salmim]

Originally Posted by ROBBOTOO

I understand that while we pay into the SP that money goes to people already in receipt of their pension, I get that. But perhaps you should be able to stop paying into the SP when you have paid in for the full qualifying years. I suspect many like myself will be paying in for many more years than the amount needed to get a full SP. In those circumstances you could then pay that money into a private pension.

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I have always thought that (guess the maths wouldn't work though)
I have 46 qualifying years to date so (in my mind) have contributed much more to the SP pot than someone who finishes after 35 and gets the same?

[Pumba75]

Originally Posted by FamilyGWales

The public service pension reforms in 2015 switched from a defined benefit to a defined contribution.

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Just for clarity, this is not the case - the reforms changed the schemes from "Final Salary" to a "Career Average" basis, but they are still Defined Benefit schemes.