Small pension release

[Boilerman]

Hello all,

 

It's been a while since I've needed help, I'm so confused:-

 

I have several pensions, they are very small occupational and some private pensions that I have paid into.

 

I searched for similar post but keep going round in circles;-

 

OK I have five small pensions that I stopped paying into about 12 years ago,, during a move Lost all details, however the good news is that the pension have moved to different companies, three I have tracked down, the other two are causing me grief, I originally took the pensions with Colonial Mutual, who then went from a Mutual company to a Limited company, I have sort of tracked down who is supposed to be administering these two pension and I'm told that they can find no details. and suggested that I write to another branch, the company is Phoenix Life, original contact was with their Welwyn Garden City Office, the wrote back saying they have no records of my two pension funds, and told me to write to their Romford Branch, this I did, then got a letter from Romford saying they have no records, and told me to write to Britannic assurance and Scottish Mutual in Glasgow, I wrote to both companies a month ago, and still haven't heard anything,I'm concerned that these two funds have disappeared!

 

The reason that I'm chasing is A tricky one, I was made redundant 2 years ago, and of course this has eaten away at my savings so now, I want to release some cash from my pensions to pay off debts and all finance agreements, this will leave me clear to at least have some sort of normality.

 

One group of pensions is worth 24k and I've been told that I can leave it with a pension of £127/p.a., buy annuity, draw a tax free lump sum, and have a pension of £122/p.a, I rather draw the lot as 120quid a year is not worth a lot, and it would be more beneficial to pay off debts and avoid the 1200/p.a interest.

 

Help would be very much appreciated

 

Kind regards

 

A confused Ken

[assisted blonde]

have you tried the governments pension tracing service? you can fill in the details you have online and it will tell you who is administering the pensions now.

[honeybee13]

Hello there.

 

I've moved your thread to the insurance and pensions forum, which I think is the right place for you. We've had a couple of queries about releasing pensions, but they don't turn up too often, as you may have found.

 

I'll post a couple of links in a minute, after I've read your post thoroughly.

 

My best, HB

[honeybee13]

Hello again.

 

You say that you would 'like to draw the lot', but Inland Revenue rules don't usually allow that. One reason they will allow cashing can be that your pension fund is 'trivial', which you might like to look at.

 

You could speak to the Pensions Advisory Service who are good and should be able to talk you through the options and technicalities. It's a free service. It might be worth mentioning the pensions you're having trouble locating, but I don't know if it's something they know about.

 

http://www.pensionsadvisoryservice.org.uk/

 

My best, HB

[honeybee13]

Well, I just googled the Pension Tracing Service and it mentions TPAS as above, so they may be able to advise you. I'd be surprised if your pensions have disappeared, but there have been a lot of company mergers.

 

https://www.gov.uk/find-lost-pension

[Boilerman]

Hi HB, great to talk to you again, you were a great help a few years ago

 

I used the tracing service and it's they who pointed me to Phoenix Life, just seems that Phoenix Life are either giving me the runaround because they "lost my pensions" or they are genuine dumb asses , I sent them scans of some correspondence, that I had, 2 pension statements to be precise, one of which is an opted out pension (I believe that's the correct term) where my NI contributions were paid to Colonial, and not the government or something along those lines.

 

Well thanks for your help thus far, I will continue with my quest

 

Kindest regards

 

Ken

[honeybee13]

Hello Ken, nice to talk to you too.

 

I just found something online that said Colonial Mutual pensions went to Friends Provident, and Phoenix are part of that group as I recall. I don't really understand what Phoenix are on about at this stage.

 

I'll post up a chart I found in case you want to tell them about it.

 

HB

[honeybee13]

Here's a link to the chart rather than the chart itself. The only thing I'm not sure about is whether this is just life assurance funds or pensions ones as well. Colonial Mutual is in there though.

 

http://www88.friendsprovident.com/common_ss/layouts/consumerSubSectionLayout.jhtml?pageId=consumer%2FSitePageSimple%3Afunds_wp_which_company

 

HB

[honeybee13]

Ken, I don't know if you'll find this any use. It mentions trivial pensions and Friends Life/Colonial Mutual.

 

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/pensions/article-2276095/Reforms-control-small-pension-pots.html

 

HB

[Expatspain]

To find ´´lost´´ pensions

 

dwp, department work and pensions

[Boilerman]

Hi all, I have found my pensions, Friends Life have them all, greedy lot eh?

 

Thanks HB and to all that have contrubuted, the advice and guidence is very much appreciated

 

Ken

[honeybee13]

That's good news, Ken, I was wondering how you were getting on. Thank you for letting us know.

 

How did you track the different pensions down in the end please? That could help someone else in the same position as you.

 

HB