Pension reductions

[Colin Barron]

Will our state pensions be worth anything when we retire. Maximum pension was reached at 30years which i believe is changing to 35 years. The latest hit when we do reach retirement age, at 66 or 67 or whatever it is when we eventually do retire, is a reduction in state pension for number of years in a contracted out final salary scheme. This could be another Tory poll tax fiasco if they are not careful.

 

[Darth Vader]

Colin, don't be daft. Nothing much has changed with the contracted out position. I worked from 15 to 66 and now I'm retired each year the DWP gives me a complicated calculation for what I should receive as a pension. They then take away almost half of it for my contacted out periods telling me that the savings that I made and should have invested would make up the shortfall. So as I say nothing has really changed in that respect. We paid less NI so that the extra saved went into our private pensions.

If you have never contracted out then you won't have this deduction. You young 'uns are so very wet behind the ears. Today things are so much better. I tried to claim on my Civil Service pension and they came back and said that since I had left before I completed 10 years of service that all my contributions were forfeited! We paid something like 9% of salary compulsory all up in smoke.

Cheers,

DV

 

[cooky1257]

R4 today, turns out the £150 p/w pension is the maximum anyone will get not the amount everyone will get....begs the question why/how almost everyone (mis)understood it to mean the latter rather than the former...

 

[Mullardman]

So it's a reduction. For some.

 

[hifinutt]

funnily enough in my pension scheme the ladies can retire at 55 on full pension but the men can also retire at 55 but with a reduced pension . bit sexist really !!!
the men and women do exactly the same job

its all to do with the equal opportunities act I believe in 1990 but I may be wrong
apparently there is no way of changing

I am sure there are many examples of these inequalities

 

[Joe Hutch]

R4 today, turns out the £150 p/w pension is the maximum anyone will get not the amount everyone will get....begs the question why/how almost everyone (mis)understood it to mean the latter rather than the former...

Wishful thinking, probably. Always read the small print. Not that I ever do, but it's a safe bet that the headline figure for anything is usually a maximum, as in 'up to 50% off!'

 

[Mick P]

Will our state pensions be worth anything when we retire. Maximum pension was reached at 30years which i believe is changing to 35 years. The latest hit when we do reach retirement age, at 66 or 67 or whatever it is when we eventually do retire, is a reduction in state pension for number of years in a contracted out final salary scheme. This could be another Tory poll tax fiasco if they are not careful.

Colin

The state pension has always been rubbish and will almost certainly continue to be rubbish therefore you need to make your own pension provision unless you want to retire in poverty. My state pension is £160 pw and no one can live on that.

There is nothing sadder than seeing a retired person sitting in a bus, using a bus pass to while away the time.

Retirement is for lots of foreign travel, eating out in many restaurant and indulging in your whims which often cost money such as buying that Harley you promised yourself . Also you got to spend more time on looking after your health, so whether you like it or not, you got to go private a lot more often because you don't want to hang about for 6 months to have an op when you are dodging your coffin.

The alternative is to sit in your house, not redecorating or updating it due to the expense, not replacing the car, wearing the same old clothes and taking a week off to visit Blackpool or some other such shithole. In other words you are making do with what you already have and slowly using up your savings.

That is not how you should be spending the last 15 years of your life.

Therefore start making provision as from today, don't think about it, just do it.

Regards

Mick

 

[monkfish]

Colin

The state pension has always been rubbish and will almost certainly continue to be rubbish therefore you need to make your own pension provision unless you want to retire in poverty. My state pension is £160 pw and no one can live on that.

There is nothing sadder than seeing a retired person sitting in a bus, using a bus pass to while away the time.

Retirement is for lots of foreign travel, eating out in many restaurant and indulging in your whims which often cost money such as buying that Harley you promised yourself . Also you got to spend more time on looking after your health, so whether you like it or not, you got to go private a lot more often because you don't want to hang about for 6 months to have an op when you are dodging your coffin.

The alternative is to sit in your house, not redecorating or updating it due to the expense, not replacing the car, wearing the same old clothes and taking a week off to visit Blackpool or some other such shithole. In other words you are making do with what you already have and slowly using up your savings.

That is not how you should be spending the last 15 years of your life.

Therefore start making provision as from today, don't think about it, just do it.

Regards

Mick

The sick, the unemployed, the poor, the great unwashed and plebs need not apply.

 

[Radfordman]

I reach retirement age (65) in May 2016, that is just after the new pension starting in April 2016. I have 42 years NI contributions at present and have never been contracted out.

In March this year I had a pension statement:
---------------------------------------------------------------

"Your estimated starting point shown on page 1 is the higher of these amounts.

New State Pension rules Existing State Pension rules


£148.40 a week £214.782 a week"

---------------------------------------------------------------

My questions are:

Do I loose anything by just missing coming under the old system? The above appears to say that I don't.

Do I have any benefit having made 42 years NI contributions instead of the 35 minimum required for a full pension?

 

[Minstrel SE]

I sent off for a pension statement which says I have made full contributions....dont know how

I have a small private pension to top it up. The way I see it, I will be living in a cheap camper van parked up where its warmest. I might start bungee jumping and stuff. I certainly dont want a miserable existance watching the fuel bills.

You can be sure that anything they are doing will rake money back in from the pension fund.

 

[Mullardman]

Colin

The state pension has always been rubbish and will almost certainly continue to be rubbish therefore you need to make your own pension provision unless you want to retire in poverty. My state pension is £160 pw and no one can live on that.

There is nothing sadder than seeing a retired person sitting in a bus, using a bus pass to while away the time.

Retirement is for lots of foreign travel, eating out in many restaurant and indulging in your whims which often cost money such as buying that Harley you promised yourself . Also you got to spend more time on looking after your health, so whether you like it or not, you got to go private a lot more often because you don't want to hang about for 6 months to have an op when you are dodging your coffin.

The alternative is to sit in your house, not redecorating or updating it due to the expense, not replacing the car, wearing the same old clothes and taking a week off to visit Blackpool or some other such shithole. In other words you are making do with what you already have and slowly using up your savings.

That is not how you should be spending the last 15 years of your life.

Therefore start making provision as from today, don't think about it, just do it.

Regards

Mick

Very detailed answer Mick.

Sadly, it's not an answer to the question asked. It's just your same old ."Look at me!! Didn't I do well?"

I sometimes wonder exactly who you're trying to convince....

 

[Cav]

I reach retirement age (65) in May 2016, that is just after the new pension starting in April 2016. I have 42 years NI contributions at present and have never been contracted out.

In March this year I had a pension statement:
---------------------------------------------------------------

"Your estimated starting point shown on page 1 is the higher of these amounts.

New State Pension rules Existing State Pension rules


£148.40 a week £214.782 a week"

---------------------------------------------------------------

My questions are:

Do I loose anything by just missing coming under the old system? The above appears to say that I don't.

Do I have any benefit having made 42 years NI contributions instead of the 35 minimum required for a full pension?

I suggest you ask DWP to clarify.

 

[Mick P]

Very detailed answer Mick.

Sadly, it's not an answer to the question asked. It's just your same old ."Look at me!! Didn't I do well?"

I sometimes wonder exactly who you're trying to convince....

Mull

I suggest you just grow up and stop arguing with everyone.

Everyone needs to plan ahead for their retirement and if you don't, you will live like a pleb unless some rich relative dies on you.

I see two types of retirees, those with a good pension who are ending their years enjoying theirself and those who did not plan and are living a rubbish existance.

The message old men like you and I have got to get across is for goodness sake start planing for you retirement from the day you start work.

Mick

 

[Joe Hutch]

Mull

I suggest you just grow up and stop arguing with everyone.

Everyone needs to plan ahead for their retirement and if you don't, you will live like a pleb unless some rich relative dies on you.

I see two types of retirees, those with a good pension who are ending their years enjoying theirself and those who did not plan and are living a rubbish existance.

The message old men like you and I have got to get across is for goodness sake start planing for you retirement from the day you start work.

Mick

I remember an old newspaper advert from when I was a nipper, showing a bloke at various ages from 20 to 60. In the first picture he's saying 'I'm too young to think about a pension'. By the last one, white haired and with a very worried expression on his face, he's saying 'I really don't know how I'll manage without a pension'.

And here it is:

 

[Bob McC]

I reach retirement age (65) in May 2016, that is just after the new pension starting in April 2016. I have 42 years NI contributions at present and have never been contracted out.

In March this year I had a pension statement:
---------------------------------------------------------------

"Your estimated starting point shown on page 1 is the higher of these amounts.

New State Pension rules Existing State Pension rules


£148.40 a week £214.782 a week"

---------------------------------------------------------------

My questions are:

Do I loose anything by just missing coming under the old system? The above appears to say that I don't.

Do I have any benefit having made 42 years NI contributions instead of the 35 minimum required for a full pension?

Answer to q1 is no, you will get the higher amount.
Answer to q2 is none whatsoever.

 

[Radfordman]

Answer to q1 is no, you will get the higher amount.
Answer to q2 is none whatsoever.

Thank you for the reply, It's now clearer.

But it all seems a bit odd, officially I come under the new scheme, but they ignore that and calculate my pension under the old scheme. I'm sure that others may have been confused too.

 

[clivem2]

I think Mick glosses over that he has a final salary inflation proofed pension. I have a decent pension pot with 35 years NI too. I will retire in a year or two but my money purchase scheme with low growth over the last couple of decades is nothing like a civil service final salary pension...even though though it's great vs the state pension.

 

[Bob McC]

Thank heaven they do work out entitlement to both regimes.
My forecast was for £43 a week under the new scheme cos I was contracted out all my working life!
As it is I'll get the current rate, which is a greater amount.

 

[Darth Vader]

I think Mick glosses over that he has a final salary inflation proofed pension. I have a decent pension pot with 35 years NI too. I will retire in a year or two but my money purchase scheme with low growth over the last couple of decades is nothing like a civil service final salary pension...even though though it's great vs the state pension.

I disagree. Mick has an excellent point and one my dad explained to me so I have saved in every possible beneficial scheme that came my way and as soon as was possible. You can't compare the performance of schemes simply as there are so many variables but if you have not made much growth over the last 20 years then something is wrong. You have to be pro-active and jump ships from time to time and not just rely on insurance companies. If you look at earlier posts you will see that the Civil Service I worked for took my compulsory pensions payments and kept them and gave me two fingers. Even so I still built up a very good pension pot and am in fact better off financially in retirement than when I was working. We are off to South Africa on tour from Cape town to Jo'burg to include all the sights and three safari parks including the Kruger and 8 days of that we'll be travelling on the Star of Africa choochoo.

As I've already pointed out I have worked for 51 years so have paid income tax and NI for much longer than you babies are whining about. If you have the years start saving now in a private pension whilst the government still tops it up at your highest tax rate. During the last 15 years or so of employment I was putting 25% of earnings into investments and private pensions. My last car was almost 20 years old when I sold it but it was a 6L V12 XJS that I had souped up! My ex- bro-in-law used to guffaw that he had a new car every two years when mine was 7 years old is now in a similar state to Micks down-trodden pensioner. He blew his dosh when young never thinking about the future as his attitude at the time was that the future would take care of itself. So it has the poor sod.

Cheers,

DV

 

[Brian]

These threads are such a magnet for patronising and gloating. Cringeworthy.