Forgotten pension surprise
Discussion
Having worked in pensions for 47 years now, I always found it incredible that people could forget that they had a pension scheme earlier in life. Yet, here I am apparently having done just that.
The Pru have been contacting me periodically for about 10 years asking me to confirm my address. I have always ignored them, convinced I had no pension benefits with them and it must be a scam. I received another letter from them a couple of months ago, but this time I wrote on it to stop bothering me, signed it, and returned in the freepost envelope. A couple of weeks later they wrote back and said there is possibly an old Scottish Amicable personal pension in my name, and my signature matched that on their records. So I duly updated my address with them and asked for a valuation.
Well, it arrived yesterday. I am truly shocked to learn it's worth £40,000.
I feel like I've won the lottery.
Apparently it's from 1993. I think it might be former Protected Rights from a defined benefit transfer value.
The moral I suppose, nobody is perfect and what you think may be a scam sometimes isn't.
Next job, to get it into my SSAS.
The Pru have been contacting me periodically for about 10 years asking me to confirm my address. I have always ignored them, convinced I had no pension benefits with them and it must be a scam. I received another letter from them a couple of months ago, but this time I wrote on it to stop bothering me, signed it, and returned in the freepost envelope. A couple of weeks later they wrote back and said there is possibly an old Scottish Amicable personal pension in my name, and my signature matched that on their records. So I duly updated my address with them and asked for a valuation.
Well, it arrived yesterday. I am truly shocked to learn it's worth £40,000.


The moral I suppose, nobody is perfect and what you think may be a scam sometimes isn't.
Next job, to get it into my SSAS.

Rufus Stone said:
Having worked in pensions for 47 years now, I always found it incredible that people could forget that they had a pension scheme earlier in life. Yet, here I am apparently having done just that.
The Pru have been contacting me periodically for about 10 years asking me to confirm my address. I have always ignored them, convinced I had no pension benefits with them and it must be a scam. I received another letter from them a couple of months ago, but this time I wrote on it to stop bothering me, signed it, and returned in the freepost envelope. A couple of weeks later they wrote back and said there is possibly an old Scottish Amicable personal pension in my name, and my signature matched that on their records. So I duly updated my address with them and asked for a valuation.
Well, it arrived yesterday. I am truly shocked to learn it's worth £40,000.
I feel like I've won the lottery.
Apparently it's from 1993. I think it might be former Protected Rights from a defined benefit transfer value.
The moral I suppose, nobody is perfect and what you think may be a scam sometimes isn't.
Next job, to get it into my SSAS.
This happens almost exclusively because people fail to tell their pension providers of their changes of address. When I was volunteering for over 30 years at The Pensions Ombudsman's Office it always surprised me how often it was close to retirement that people realised there could be some pensions from the past, and often for large amounts.The Pru have been contacting me periodically for about 10 years asking me to confirm my address. I have always ignored them, convinced I had no pension benefits with them and it must be a scam. I received another letter from them a couple of months ago, but this time I wrote on it to stop bothering me, signed it, and returned in the freepost envelope. A couple of weeks later they wrote back and said there is possibly an old Scottish Amicable personal pension in my name, and my signature matched that on their records. So I duly updated my address with them and asked for a valuation.
Well, it arrived yesterday. I am truly shocked to learn it's worth £40,000.


The moral I suppose, nobody is perfect and what you think may be a scam sometimes isn't.
Next job, to get it into my SSAS.

A few years back my niece raised the matter of a possible "old" pension with me, so on her behalf I made some enquiries, and this produced a DB pension with a capital value of about......£300,000!! She was quite grateful to me.
R.
The Leaper said:
This happens almost exclusively because people fail to tell their pension providers of their changes of address. When I was volunteering for over 30 years at The Pensions Ombudsman's Office it always surprised me how often it was close to retirement that people realised there could be some pensions from the past, and often for large amounts.
A few years back my niece raised the matter of a possible "old" pension with me, so on her behalf I made some enquiries, and this produced a DB pension with a capital value of about......£300,000!! She was quite grateful to me.
R.
Crikey, I thought I had done well. A few years back my niece raised the matter of a possible "old" pension with me, so on her behalf I made some enquiries, and this produced a DB pension with a capital value of about......£300,000!! She was quite grateful to me.
R.

Rufus Stone said:
Crikey, I thought I had done well. 
Yes, a good result for my niece. This was in respect of her pension for pensionable service 1975-1990 when she left her employer, so many years ago. She reached her State pension age early 2023 and heard nothing about her private pension so she contacted her ex employer who stated something like "we can find no liability for you". I then made enquiries for her and got the good result. Quite quickly too helped, maybe, because the occupational pension plan she participated in is one of the UK's largest.
It included an option of a reduced pension plus a tax free cash sum of around £65,000 which she took, wisely IMO.
R.
I didn't forget about mine, but I couldn't quite believe it would ever happen.
It was from my first job, from 1978 to 1982. When I left, I got a letter saying it would be a fiver per week.
When I hit 65, that had increased to £100/wk. Apparently it went up at 8.something% every year.
Its value towards my LTA was just over £100K.
Only bummer is it doesn't increase now - it stays at the same amount.
It was from my first job, from 1978 to 1982. When I left, I got a letter saying it would be a fiver per week.
When I hit 65, that had increased to £100/wk. Apparently it went up at 8.something% every year.
Its value towards my LTA was just over £100K.
Only bummer is it doesn't increase now - it stays at the same amount.
Sheepshanks said:
I didn't forget about mine, but I couldn't quite believe it would ever happen.
It was from my first job, from 1978 to 1982. When I left, I got a letter saying it would be a fiver per week.
When I hit 65, that had increased to £100/wk. Apparently it went up at 8.something% every year.
Its value towards my LTA was just over £100K.
Only bummer is it doesn't increase now - it stays at the same amount.
A pleasant outcome for you, no doubt. It was from my first job, from 1978 to 1982. When I left, I got a letter saying it would be a fiver per week.
When I hit 65, that had increased to £100/wk. Apparently it went up at 8.something% every year.
Its value towards my LTA was just over £100K.
Only bummer is it doesn't increase now - it stays at the same amount.
It's easy to see why people consider ancient small pensions from ages ago might be ignored/overlooked/not worth pursuing, and then they are surprised to find that they have quite a decent capital value when discovered/claimed years later.
R.
The Gauge said:
So these pensions that people forget they have, had they known about them all along would it have made a difference to their value, as in would they have dome something with them such as transferring them into another pension?
I tried to transfer mine years ago but they wouldn't allow it.Sheepshanks said:
I didn't forget about mine, but I couldn't quite believe it would ever happen.
It was from my first job, from 1978 to 1982. When I left, I got a letter saying it would be a fiver per week.
When I hit 65, that had increased to £100/wk. Apparently it went up at 8.something% every year.
Its value towards my LTA was just over £100K.
Only bummer is it doesn't increase now - it stays at the same amount.
Pre '88 GMP. It was from my first job, from 1978 to 1982. When I left, I got a letter saying it would be a fiver per week.
When I hit 65, that had increased to £100/wk. Apparently it went up at 8.something% every year.
Its value towards my LTA was just over £100K.
Only bummer is it doesn't increase now - it stays at the same amount.

Rufus Stone said:
Don't need an adviser and it won't cost me a penny. But, errr, thanks.
If you say so. If it's a DB type pension or if there are benefits attached you may well need the proposed transfer independently reviewed to make sure it's appropriate as it's over the £30k small pension limit. Mr Pointy said:
Rufus Stone said:
Don't need an adviser and it won't cost me a penny. But, errr, thanks.
If you say so. If it's a DB type pension or if there are benefits attached you may well need the proposed transfer independently reviewed to make sure it's appropriate as it's over the £30k small pension limit. Blue_star said:
Badda said:
I tracked one down that I d paid in about £90 (one month) 20 years prior and was valued at £4.5k. Well surprised.
I think someone in your pension fund was placing money to be laundered, how did they get this return . WtfGassing Station | Finance | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff