Pension

[Gas1883]

I’m being tuped over to the company taking over the contract from my present company in June / July , I’ll be 64 then , so assuming I work until 67 ( goverment projection for me to retire ) .
What’s my options , I assume my present pension will be frozen ? , is it worth starting a pension with the new company ? Can you just opt out of there company scheme etc
Thanks

[LastPoster]

You would need to provide more details about you existing pension for anyone to reply


But there’s unlikely to be any reason why you shouldn’t join the new company scheme

[bitchstewie]

Very broadly speaking you should be able to opt-in or out of the new scheme and your existing pension either stays with the current provider or you could look to transfer it to the new scheme or move it to a different provider completely.

Devil's in the detail though.

[ferret50]

Bear in mind that starting a new scheme will see very little, if any, gain in value.

'er indoors went to work for Barchester Care Homes in 2018 and I insisted that she joined their NEST pension scheme. She retired two years ago and had paid in just over £5k....we extracted, after a 6 months struggle and an email to NEST's CEO, just £5200.....

If the same amount had be moved into a savings account she would have lost the tax rebate uplift but earned more overall!

[bitchstewie]

If you've had a couple of years in something bond heavy and the 1.8% upfront on new contributions that NEST take I'm not surprised!

[craig1912]

ferret50 said:

Bear in mind that starting a new scheme will see very little, if any, gain in value.

But if a generalisation- no reason why growth couldn’t have been a lot more than that. All depends on what it is invested in and what the charges are.

[dingg]

ferret50 said:

Bear in mind that starting a new scheme will see very little, if any, gain in value.

Whoa there cowboy, you don't know all the details of the deal, maybe the company matches whatever he puts in, add in the tax relief and I'd be shocked if he didn't gain anything.

Last employment I had a chat with a colleague who hadn't bothered with the company scheme for about 8 years after joining them (his words 'just never got around to it') and "its not really worth it"

gave him a right bking and showed him the maffs and a few examples of returns I'd made and his words 'can't believe how stupid I've been'

[goingonholiday]

OP, please please contact your existing pension scheme and find out the details, is it a defined benefit (final salary type scheme) or defined contribution (pot of money). How long have you been in it? Have you got pensions from previous employers?

You really need to get a handle on what you've got. Just because the state pension kicks in at 67 doesn't mean other pensions won't kick in earlier!

[ferret50]

bhstewie said:

If you've had a couple of years in something bond heavy and the 1.8% upfront on new contributions that NEST take I'm not surprised!

Yes!

She got stung exactly in this way, but the six months of faffing about AFTER retirement to get such a small amount into 'er SIPP was really unbelievable!

As I rote above, it took an email to the CEO to get things moving.

They did not even offer a cash option.....

[Enut]

ferret50 said:

Bear in mind that starting a new scheme will see very little, if any, gain in value.

'er indoors went to work for Barchester Care Homes in 2018 and I insisted that she joined their NEST pension scheme. She retired two years ago and had paid in just over £5k....we extracted, after a 6 months struggle and an email to NEST's CEO, just £5200.....

If the same amount had be moved into a savings account she would have lost the tax rebate uplift but earned more overall!

Were there any employer contributions made into the NEST scheme? Was that part of the £5K that 'she paid in' so did she in fact pay in considerably less than £5K personally?

OP No one can give you advice based on the information given, however it is almost always correct to join an employer's pension scheme.

[Nigel_O]

ferret50 said:

They did not even offer a cash option.....

Look up ‘trivial commutation’ or ‘small pot exemption’

[Man of gas]

ferret50 said:

Bear in mind that starting a new scheme will see very little, if any, gain in value.

'er indoors went to work for Barchester Care Homes in 2018 and I insisted that she joined their NEST pension scheme. She retired two years ago and had paid in just over £5k....we extracted, after a 6 months struggle and an email to NEST's CEO, just £5200.....

If the same amount had be moved into a savings account she would have lost the tax rebate uplift but earned more overall!

I started a new private company pension in April 23 after years in the NHS. I started contributing 5% as my employer would double up to a max of 10%. In August I decided to up my contributions to 15% with the pending change in government. As of last month I had contributed about 73K with a current value of 85K which I’m quite pleased with after about 20 months

Edited by Man of gas on Sunday 2nd February 14:33

[ferret50]

Enut said:

ferret50 said:

Bear in mind that starting a new scheme will see very little, if any, gain in value.

'er indoors went to work for Barchester Care Homes in 2018 and I insisted that she joined their NEST pension scheme. She retired two years ago and had paid in just over £5k....we extracted, after a 6 months struggle and an email to NEST's CEO, just £5200.....

If the same amount had be moved into a savings account she would have lost the tax rebate uplift but earned more overall!

Were there any employer contributions made into the NEST scheme? Was that part of the £5K that 'she paid in' so did she in fact pay in considerably less than £5K personally?

If not for the employer contribution and the tax relief she would have been out of pocket. Total contributions a year before retirement were about 110% of value. But of course NEST still took their fee!
After having a good moan the last year did generate a very small overall gain, largely lost by their reluctance to pay 'er out. We needed the pot transfering to 'er SIPP and for reasons not revealed to 'er it took more than 6 months. Terrible bunch to deal with.