Uk Pension Question

[ro2124]

Having recently reached retirement age made some inquiries with HM Revenue & Customs. Not having lived in UK for many years, I know I will not be entitled to the full pension as I wont have made enough contributions. Checked online to see how much I may be entitled to. However it wasn't as bad as I thought I actually have 30 years of full NI contributions. Think this would have been enough for a full pension some years ago, but the rules have changed. Looking at the currant calculations on HM Revenue & Customs website I will be entitled to most of the full pension, about 20 pounds less.

Then recently I received a letter from HM Revenue and it mentioned a company pension scheme I belong to some years ago which was for about 6 years. Well like with all government communications usually full of gobbledygook and complicated information which is hard to make head or tail of.
What I cant figure out if these 6 years with an employer pension scheme is extra on top of the amount I receive.

[Islay]

It probably will be, the 6 years you paid into will be divided into a small amount and paid out each month or frequency you have requested.

[kloofnek]

Yes,it is wht I think is called or was,An Occupational Pension,that is paid separate to the State Pension,my OH has one

[ro2124]

Ok Thanks, but there was also a "contracted out" from NI scheme which this may have been part of ,so dont know how that will affect things Letter mentions weekly amount of GMP 25.08 which of course is far less than normal pension. So either is extra amount or amount from Company Pension scheme which will be topped up to normal pension amount.All very confusing.

[fiction-factory]

I wouldn't worry about GMP and what it means. You will get the state pension given in your forecast and then you will get the occupational pension as advised by the pension scheme. Some tax may be deducted from your occupational pension though if total income in the tax year exceeds the personal allowance.

I am puzzled though as to why HMRC are telling you about the occupational pension (unless you worked for HMRC or are already receiving it from a past empoyers's scheme and they are just mentioning it for tax code purposes

[ro2124]

Yeah dont know why, but glad they did, as I lost the details of the company scheme ages ago :-)

[Peter Pedant]

to a certain extent I can see why you are confused

You have to apply for your old age pension which is then 'awarded'
I used the telephone as the site was frozen for ages

as you were contracted out as I was you are a few years short of a £119.30 altho I dont know how much
https://www.gov.uk/state-pension/what-youll-get

you wont get the second state pension / serps as you were contracted out

Your private pension- you should apply to the company pension trustees
You cant really expect the govt to manage your private pension

that is just about it

[Peter Pedant]

GMP is explained here
https://www.barnett-waddingham.co.uk/comment-insight/blog/2014/08/18/what-is-a-gmp/

Oh and if you are short of NICs then you may be able to top up

https://www.gov.uk/state-pension/increase-the-amount-youll-get

not worth it for me
you should take advice before ( trying ) to top up

[ro2124]

@Peter Pedant
>as you were contracted out as I was you are a few years short of a £119.30 >altho I dont know how much

Well again ts confusing the max amount can vary depending on when contributions started some get 119 other 155, From what I can gather I should be entitled to the higher amount minus around 20 as contribution were not quite enough so that would be about 133, But with this contracting out crap its totally confusing.

[fiction-factory]

Yes, contacted-out years can now have an impact and although you paid lower NI (and benefited from tax relief on occupational pension scheme contributions) the impact in terms of lower pension can exceed any past NI savings. I was contracted out for 25 years so I will get a quite a bit less than the £155 although I can still make it up as I have around 10 years left in which to pay full NI (no longer contracted out).

[EDDIE51]

The £25.08 will be from the company pension and will be paid in addition to the state pension.
It is worth seeing if you are also entitled to Pension Credit, this tops up your income from all other pensions to the pension credit level. My wife and I get £74 a week Pension Credit in addition to our state pension and my two small private pensions. Getting even £1 a week Pension credit means you also automatically get full council tax relief and full housing benefit as well as hospital / medical/ clinic travel cost refunded and full completely free dental treatment. You get the £200 a year winter fuel allowance as well and cold weather payments.

[ro2124]

@ Eddies1

Well all that does not really apply to me As I said in original post lived abroad for many years and still do. Dont really have any wish to return to UK way things are going there. The England I used to know and loved is gone forever.

[Peter Pedant]

erm these answers make perfect sense to me
who will get my first OAP payment in erm 25 days and 12 hours

just wait and see what the DWP decide you deserve
if you were contracted out then your limit on that should be £119

you might ahve got two letters saying that you did not need to reply and then saying your pension would be affected by £78, £55 and £33 all in the same letter

none of the co hort who were drawing pensions from Jan 2017 could understand what it meant OTHER than we were in a transitional group and likely therefore to loose out

[furrypusscat]

Not sure if you are aware so just to confirm, you don't automatically receive your pension on your retirement age date, you have to apply by phone application which is the quickest or by asking for the necessary forms to complete. I assume the same applies if you live abroad.

[Peter Pedant]

// Not sure if you are aware so just to confirm, you don't automatically receive your pension on your retirement age date, you have to apply//

// You have to apply for your old age pension which is then 'awarded'
I used the telephone as the site was frozen for ages //

yup said that but most of the original poster's replies have been on the lines of "my situation is very different and ...."

[furrypusscat]

When OH was about to claim his pension in May this year, he phoned to ask exactly what his State Pension would be, he was told thay could only give a definite amount once he claimed, other figures were just calculations of what he may or may not receive and not a definite set amount.
He decided as he was on the phone to them he may as well apply over the phone.
He received the full amount of the new pension.

[ro2124]

Mmh..Although some posters say claim can be done on phone, when I called them they said has to be done trough application form sent by post
Which is a bit of a pain as being abroad, will probably take weeks or months to arrive, if at all!
Mail service where I live abroad in Caribbean is notoriously unreliable and corrupt.

[furrypusscat]

Hi ro, Can definitely be applied for by phone, it was actually their customer services that suggested that it was the quickest way to apply. OH dealt with it within 15 minutes and payments soon started direct into his selected bank account. Worth having a go.

[ubasses]

I think if you live abroad it has to be claimed by post. It was the only way our friends in Cyprus could claim theirs.

[EDDIE51]

I applied for mine by phone and it was very quick and efficient. They confirmed the amount and the exact date of the first payment. Payment arrived exactly on time and exactly the stated amount.

[ro2124]

Well looking at the answers, seems it can be done by phone but not if you live abroad.
I can see this will be a right hassle by post, might be best using a courier service to send forms to get it there quicker, but expect that will cost an arm and a leg.
Oh yeah and just had email from the pension company. Apparently they have no record of the pension at all., Which seems a bit weird as HM Revenue and Customs gave me all the details including Ref Nrs,time frame, etc, So they asked for Name ,DoB which is rather stupid already gave then all that plus all the info from HM Revenue. Looks like another bunch of incompetents to complicate matters.... My My this is going to be fun-Not!