Can anyone help.

My Final salary pension ends on April 1st and is 'contracted out', we are moving to a money purchase scheme and I received a letter yesterday saying that the new scheme will be 'contracted in' which will begin building up a second state pension for me. However, looking on various websites this is as clear as mud. If I have got this right it looks like because I already have 35 years contributions I will get the new £147 per week state pension, but all further NI contributions by me will 'not' accrue any further benefits.

The letter from my company indicates I will pay MORE national insurance, which seems a bit unfair if I get no further benefits from it.

Have I read it right.

The 35 year rule is correct as I have received correspondence from the DSS (or whatever they call themselves this week) to confirm the same.

I can only guess that your existing contracted out pension attracted some NIS relief for you and when it ends it won't, pure guess though.

But the good news is that now you can move your pensions to an investment whoring service and watch it reduce in value year on year as they balls-up their guesswork and yet still takes fees year on year - its great fun out here in private pension land.

Although its nowhere near as good as the FS scheme, the company are putting in 10.5% to my 6%, so I suppose it will beat any IAS's I could put my 6% in (which would be higher as it would be off my nett pay).

Any scheme where your company contributes like that is far and away better than anything that the rest of us who are currently swimming around in the quagmire that is private pension land will ever dream of getting, I suspect that there are a few "investment bankers" who previously worked for NatWest Pensions who are now sitting on a beach in a far distant land being wafted with palm leaves by dusky maidens whilst sipping a chilled aperitif all paid for by yours truly during the "Lets get rich, very quickly, and then run" years.

Something similar at our place, to get round the increase NI we opted for a salary sacrifice scheme. Or something.

Congratulations, you are part of the last generation who is probably going to get a decent pension without having to make sky-high contributions. You also probably benefited from free higher education and reasonable house prices.

And so everything's improving now?

Well, the pension issue is largely because we live longer. Final salary pensions were easy to fund when retirees only lived five more years, tougher when they live 20 more years.

A big part of the pension problem is that during the good times many employers (and employees) took payment holidays as the funds were doing so well, without the foresight to cope with the fact that people were living longer. When thay had to start paying again the employers treated it as a new expense rather than an existing one which they avoided for a few years and rather then upping contributions killed off the final salary schemes.

Don't state the obvious - Sin bin's chattering classes can't deal with that!!

wow, people om the Sin Bin expecting free money, whatever next. GO OUT AND EARN IT

Has anyone said that ?

No ?

they have, investment isn't a guarantee (as any sane person knows), how come my pensions seems to be very healthy and yet other people's don't. I am currently looking at around £26k a year return once I reach 55, and I am 15 years off...BECAUSE I HAVE PAID FOR IT perhaps?

I can't see where anyone is asking for free money ?

Most people contribute to their own pensions but well done anyway.

Gary you are complaining that your company's pension provider is not up to scratch - why not take your money and invest it yourself - you obviously believe you can do a better job?

Here's the major problem for me - in five out of the last seven years NatWest Pensions LOST money from my pension pot, they managed to DECREASE my pension pot quite significantly in the recession years until finally they threw up their hands and declared "We're fekkin shiote at this pensions lark we are" and sold the lot to Aviva.

Which isn't what they told me twenty years ago when I signed up with them.

Here's the thing - if I wasn't so busy trying to save my own business during those times and if I was the sort who can sit and stare at list upon lists of share activity day after day (I'm not) then I could have simply moved my pension pot into a simple current account, earned no interest at all, done absolutely nothing with that money for five years, and emerged the downturn years tens of thousands of pounds ahead of NatWest Pensions.

And for that "expert" advice they charged me plenty too.

So yes, and with hindsight, I would have performed much better than NatWest Pensions over the last seven years, just by doing nothing.

so, in a nutshell, you're crap at business and crap at investment, but it's ALL someone else's fault?

How come I've been in business for 10 years (10 year anniversary this year), have consistently turned a profit and have investments worth around 40% more than I invested in 2004, is that because I didn't abdicate responsibility to someone else?

Love your ridiculous kneejerk reactions on everything, you know, the sort that have got you into trouble so many times on the forum, where you open your gob and shoite spouts out - when you've run a business for 24 years then come back and we'll talk








But,

Maybe you could explain HM Government's keeness to enroll EVERYONE in a privately managed (by third party) Workplace Pension - in Standee World wouldn't it just be better if everyone played the stock market themselves, maybe in their tea break at work, then we could all become "experts" just like the "experts" were at NatWest Pensions ?

the only times I have gotten into trouble is when a moderator has disagreed with me because I am not a lefty.

And I wont be in business for 24 years, I only need 5 more and I will retire, because I am good at it!

Most business owners who aren't full of their own arrogance will realise, like I did after many years, that they got where they are mainly through luck, I admit to being very lucky during the 24 years that I owned my business (and employed around a dozen direct employees) - even Branson and Sugar admit to getting lucky, and then sometimes unlucky, I hope you don't hit one of those oil patches of bad luck that most businesses can hit at any stage - the biggest lesson I learned, luckily before I needed it , was to have a Plan B, a get-out plan, I activated mine in 2007, sold out to a bigger rival and became a director at their business, have relinquished that now (too much hassle) and became a consultant instead - that was a good Plan B.

Anyhow, must dash now, I'm required on a supermarket site in Lincoln by 10.30, on call day, overtime day, and mileage chargeable, loadsamoney day.

those trollies won't move themselves

What sort of crappy backward County still allows toll bridges ?

A57 to Lincoln and there's a bloody toll bridge, 40p each friggin way, thats almost two miles of mileage allowance wasted, had to drive round in circles for a bit to make that up.


Seriously, how many A roads still have highwaymen working them ?

Dunham Toll Bridge, I'm surprised you weren't aware of it.

Only when half a mile away




I normally head to Lincoln from the north rather than from the east, decided to go a different way today just for the hell of it, grrrrr...

Its not even an impressive bridge.

It was even worse pre 1975 when it got upgraded carriage-wise.