Payments made into a previous employer's company scheme

[jmg666]

Apologies in advance if this is a dumb question.

 

 

I worked for a company from approximately May/June 1990 to around March 1992,

during which time I had contributions into their pension scheme deducted from my pay.

 

 

I've just reached 65 and am now receiving my state pension and idly wondered what happened to those contributions, whether it would be possible to get those back, or if I could now legitimately claim a pension (however tiny) from that company?

 

Or is it the case that I've effectively kissed that money goodbye?

 

Any assistance or pointers in the right direction would be gratefully received.

[honeybee13]

Hello there.

 

Are the company still in business? Have they been sending you annual statements of your pension entitlement or have you moved and not remembered to tell them?

 

There's also the pension tracing service if you can't find the company.

 

HB

[jmg666]

Hi - thanks for the response.

They're still in business (although the company name changed a few years ago)

but I've never had annual statements from them

– I was made redundant with others who worked on a trade magazine & haven't had any contact with them since.

[honeybee13]

OK, thank you. Have you rung them to see if they have a pensions person who can help you?

 

HB

[jmg666]

Not yet – didn't want to ask a question which someone on here might know is pointless and save me some brief embarrassment, tbh.

[ericsbrother]

The pension still exists,

they just have forgotten about you so you will need to remind them.

 

 

Write to the pension scheme trustees or administrator if you have an address or write to the old company.

If they do not respond in a timely manner them ask the Pensions advisory Scheme to contact them on your behalf.

The PAS do this all the time and have details of many closd schemes ect so will know who to poke.

 

What you will get will depend on the terms of the scheme at the time you were made redundant.

Some schemes had to top up the pensions of people made redundant as part of the golden bullet

but that would only apply if you were of a certain age when getting the boot and for very few schemes.

 

 

Most schemes would freeze your benefits or increase them by a small annual amount and you will now be entitield to the pension accrued from those benefits (final salary scheme)

 

 

If it was a money purchase scheme you now have a pot of money you can either commute to a pension or cash in.

The pot will not be much bigger than what you paid in but it is still yours so dont be embarrassed to demand it.

 

 

Dont accept the first annuity/pension quote and get a copy of the scheme rules if you can to make your decision making easier as you only get one bite of the cherry

[jmg666]

Thanks for the advice - very much appreciated and I will start making enquiries on Monday.

jmg

[honeybee13]

Hello again.

 

I don't disagree with EB, but it's worth a phone call on Monday to see if they have a pensions manager. That way you might have news sooner, or a tip on who to ring or write to. [My OH is a pensions manager.]

 

If not, the DWP have a pensions tracing service.

 

HB

[Mr.P]

If it was a money purchase scheme you now have a pot of money you can either commute to a pension or cash in. The pot will not be much bigger than what you paid in but it is still yours so dont be embarrassed to demand it.

 

A cautionary tale about a small pension pot: http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/pensions/article-3799069/Travesty-vanishing-pension-Paul-s-worth-1-300-90s-year-told-s-left-owes-37-32.html

 

One would hope that over the last 25 years, your small pension pot would have grown by a reasonable amount and is now worth cashing in.

[jmg666]

Thanks for the cautionary tale, Mr P – hopefully not going to have those sorts of issues, but who knows? Pays to know the downsides as well as the ups.

jmg

[Surfer01]

There is a division within the DWP that is able to trace any pensions that you may have forgotten about. I am also fairly sure but not positive that it is also the duty of the trustees of the pension fund to notify the DWP of this pension. If a small pension probably worth taking it as a lump sum and then claiming back any tax paid.

[Old Cogger]

Find pension contact details - GOV.UK

 

https://www.gov.uk/find-pension-contact-details

[ericsbrother]

yes, but they bottled out an dpaid him with a small profit once their scheming and churning became public knowledge.

A cautionary tale about a small pension pot: http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/pensions/article-3799069/Travesty-vanishing-pension-Paul-s-worth-1-300-90s-year-told-s-left-owes-37-32.html

 

One would hope that over the last 25 years, your small pension pot would have grown by a reasonable amount and is now worth cashing in.

[Surfer01]

yes, but they bottled out an dpaid him with a small profit once their scheming and churning became public knowledge.

 

However it does make you wonder how many other people have been caught out and never knew about being able to claim anyway. May be in the thousands?

[ericsbrother]

an awful lot, there was another case in today's Money Mail. The general scheme of things tends to be outrageous managemtn and other fees that breach unfair contracts legislation and also amount to unlawful penalty charges. I think the answer is to be both persistent andpersuasive-let them know that you intend to publicise their behaviour as that seems to have more effect than just telling them they are breaking the law.