Contracted Out Pension

[HenryFord]

Hi. Many years ago I contracted out of the govenments pension scheme. I was about 21 at the time. I cannot remember who I contracted out with, and the person that did the paperwork is now dead. How do i find this information and where do I stand with my state pension. Thanks in advance

[fiction-factory]

You can apply online for a state pension forecast. But if you are a way from retirement I'd take it with a pinch of salt as the goalposts keep being moved, and also things will change with the new universal pension (which those contracted out may find they don't get in full)
If it was a company pension you would only have been contracted out for that time in that company/ scheme.
If it was a private pension, i'm not sure

[ubasses]

This is not very clear, did you contract out of SERPS (as it was called 21 years ago) or did you work for a public service and decide to leave their pension scheme. If it was SERPS you will have paid less national insurance over the years as you would receive a Company Pension and basic state pension.

[HenryFord]

contracted out of serps, whatever that is / was

[fiction-factory]

Serps was in addition to the basic state pension so contracting out won't currently affect the basic state pension you get- but the situation will be less lear if you retire afte rteh new universal pension comes in.
When do you reach state pension age?
There's no harm in getting a state pension forecast to put your mind at rest

[Peter Pedant]

Here is a bit on it
http://www.which.co.uk/money/retirement/guides/contracting-out-of-state-second-pension-s2p/what-contracting-out-means/

I thought at the time that you couldnt contract out of S2P without being in a personal pension. Also I thought the whole of the NHS contracted out of S2P, so if you have done it it neednt be a disaster.

[Maydup]

Do you have any records relating to the company or private pension that your small bits of NI went into into instead?

[HenryFord]

I run a company that has 20 self employed drivers. These drivers are not VAT registered, but my company is. The drivers pay for fuel themselves and we pass this expense on to our customers. We repay the drivers for the fuel in full, my customers repay us for the fuel in full. My customers reclaim the vat on the fuel as though they had paid for it themselves. We pay no vat on the fuel nor do we claim any vat on the fuel - we simply pass it on to our customer as though they had paid it and the customer claims the vat back. We have recently had an audit and have been told by the auditors that this may not be acceptable to HMRC and our accountants want several thousand pounds to look into it! Can anyone help- this seems like common sense to me....its an expense for my customers (not for us) so they claim the vat back? Please help, thanks in advance.

[Peter Pedant]

Your issue is not really AB fodder
and is certainly NOT common sense

As soon as you mention self-employed drivers
I am reminded of
Ready mixed concrete v MOPNI ( min of pensions and nat insurance)
here
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/manuals/esmmanual/esm7030.htm

It is obvious you have been trying lawfully of course to avoid VAT charges and not surprisingly the VAT man is now after you
good luck

I think but I do not have all the facts that you will find you have been badly advised int he past