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[epipete]

John, I'm just a poor English pensioner, I need to make savings wherever I can, haven't you heard of 'Austerity' or 'Brexit'??? Have you seen the Exchange Rate recently? And, and this is important, sometimes you feel the need to beat the system even in small innocuous ways.

More seriously, you are quite right and I have ordered accordingly

[Brit-Car-Nut]

:lol: John, I'm just a poor English pensioner, I need to make savings wherever I can, haven't you heard of 'Austerity' or 'Brexit'??? Have you seen the Exchange Rate recently? And, and this is important, sometimes you feel the need to beat the system even in small innocuous ways.

More seriously, you are quite right and I have ordered accordingly

Pete: I was forced into stopping work WITHOUT a pension, so I can sympathize with tight budgets, but some days it is just not worth the weeks of hassle and struggle to save 25 quid.

You need to develop a "cottage" trade item that picks up a couple quid per item and fund projects that way.

I got lucky and the spousal unit completed her time at work so has enough pension to barely support the home expenses and overhead, so I can still dabble with the car projects.

[epipete]

Which of course is why we are in Cyprus, for the Spousal Unit to get some more time in before financial Armageddon strikes and we face the deep abyss before State Pension comes to our salvation

[Saltire]

:D Which of course is why we are in Cyprus, for the Spousal Unit to get some more time in before financial Armageddon strikes and we face the deep abyss before State Pension comes to our salvation

Pete

If you really think the State Pension is your salvation, that Cypriot brandy must be more powerful than I realised

[dapinky]

:D Which of course is why we are in Cyprus, for the Spousal Unit to get some more time in before financial Armageddon strikes and we face the deep abyss before State Pension comes to our salvation

Pete

If you really think the State Pension is your salvation, that Cypriot brandy must be more powerful than I realised

Moreso as yours & Maureens will be reduced due to having a Civil Service pension (at current prices, I'll be taking a reduction of £30 a week on the State Pension as my work pension was 'Opted Out' - even though I never had the option to do anything except pay in at the rate they demanded, for the pension they decided I would get!

[epipete]

Well, I shall just have to roll with the punches. Throughout my working life I see that the Conservatives have never been friends of mine and the Labour Party weren't much better. Yes Dave, the 'Contracted out' does rankle though I hadn't figured its impact as being that great - £30 a week, that's the price of one of those brackets!

Better poor another Brandy!

[Saltire]

More So as yours & Maureens will be reduced due to having a Civil Service pension (at current prices, I'll be taking a reduction of £30 a week on the State Pension as my work pension was 'Opted Out' - even though I never had the option to do anything except pay in at the rate they demanded, for the pension they decided I would get!

Likewise: I got a forecast earlier this year, and I'm down nearly £50 a week And I'll have to pay tax on it, in all probability.

My strategy to try to forget is twofold: and (but, as a magistrate, clearly not concurrently).

[Artaban]

The Civil Service scheme is amazingly generous and you paid less National Insurance each month than the rest of us when you were contracted out so no complaining. Most of us won't be able to retire. We'll get home from our last day of work and fall into a coffin.

[dapinky]

The Civil Service scheme is amazingly generous and you paid less National Insurance each month than the rest of us when you were contracted out so no complaining. Most of us won't be able to retire. We'll get home from our last day of work and fall into a coffin.

Whilst i can agree with your sentiments, there are things about the whole system which stick in my gut........ like the non-optional element of the (generous?) pension scheme...... it may appear generous (and compared to many, it *may* be) - but it doesn't come for nowt! They happily took 13% of my pay - not many other schemes take that much - which is why it appears to be "generous".....

The NI payments were still made (albeit at a slightly reduced percentage) - but still a large sum per month.... which is another part of my "moan".

I paid 11% of my salary (after the threashold) into the pot....

..... my wife, also pays 11% of her wage into the same pot.....

I worked 31 years, and so paid a fair chunk into the pot during that time....

My wife got 'credit' for the time she was a student after the age of 16 (3 years), then paid her stamp for a few years, then started a family - whereupon she got 'credit' for 15 years whilst raising kids that she chose to have.

so, she has had 18 years worth of stamp and not put anything into the pot during that time.

Then she went back to work part-time (24 hrs/week) so had to pay in again...... but with the threashold levels, she didn't put a lot in, and for a couple of years, nowt at all as she was on a 16hr contract.

I believe that her last paycheck showed that her NI contribution is £2.06 per week (24 hours at minimum wage + a tad), less the £155 threashold @ 11% NI rate)....

However, she will receive a full State Pension upon attaining 67 years.

So, she will pay in approximately 12 years at £2/week (rounded for simplicity!) = £1248... so as long as she survives for 9 weeks after retiring, she will be a net beneficiary of the system (notwithstanding that she will continue to pay NI, having passed the 30-year point where she qualifies for full State Pension)....

....and all this assumes that all of the NI money goes into the Pension Scheme - which it doesn't.....

With my reduced State Pension, I will need to claim it for 22 years to break even (and that is befor you consider that if all my payments had gone into my bank account, they would earn me 0.05% interest )

So, on my 90th Birthday I shall be able to raise a small glass of Cypriot Brandy and make a toast to UK Government

[Artaban]

The State pension has its anomalies but from April this year you need 35 qualifying years (not 30) to maximise the Single Tier State pension. Get an up to date BR19 online from DWP.

When I meant generous I meant very very very generous. I used to be in a final salary scheme with Abbey/Santander but they could no longer afford to fund it and it wasn't as generous as the civil service scheme. In total 30% of my gross salary went into its replacement money purchase scheme and the estimated benefits (no longer any guarantees) were way below the scheme that they closed.
In your Civil Service scheme the contribution rate will have been close to 40% of your salary (approx 25% employer; 15% employee) though different departments and salary levels pay slightly different levels. As an unfunded scheme it will never enter the Pension Protection Fund so your benefits will never be cut if the economy takes a dive, unlike the private sector with a similar scheme. Your benefits are fully index linked and guaranteed for life with widows benefits as well, for only 13%...an absolute bargain. NI contributions, as part of general taxation, pay for the whole of the benefits system (not just the state pension) and also contribute towards the civil service pension scheme. There is no pension fund for the civil service scheme, benefits are paid from current taxation revenues. So as far as your Civil Service pension goes you will have paid less National Insurance and some of what you did pay will go towards your own pension anyway. On the other hand I'll have paid full National Insurance and none of it will have gone into my pension at all...only into yours.
Its OK you can buy me a beer to thank me.

Not really much about window slider brackets...sorry Pete.

Andy

[dapinky]

The State pension has its anomalies but from April this year you need 35 qualifying years (not 30) to maximise the Single Tier State pension. Get an up to date BR19 online from DWP.

This is something that no-one can currently answer for me.....

.... when i retired (Summer 2013) on full Police pension, i had paid NI for 31 years, and had another few years 'credit' for when I was a student....

...at that time, I needed 30 years payments to qualify for a full State Pension.... which i had.

Then they changed the rules to 35 years, but as I am no longer working, I am not paying NI contributions. I can't get any further 'credits' without signing on, which I can't do because of my Service Pension....

....according to my last online quote I will be eligible for a full State Pension, less the bit for being part of the 'Opted Out' scheme.

However, no-one seems to be able to tell me if it will be further reduced due to not having 35 years of payments, or if I may need to top it up (but financially not worth it) - or if i am still eligible as when i retired, i had made enough payments at that point (under the then current regulations) to receive the full Pension.

I think that the easiest way round it is to sell up and go and live like a King in a tropical climate

[Artaban]

Dave,
Maybe this will help. On the 5th April this year everyone had their state pension entitlement calculated by the DWP on both the old and new rules. This calculation will never be done again. So they calculated your state pension under both the old rules (30 years BSP + SERPS + S2P less contracted out deductions) and the new rules (35 yrs Single Tier Pension (STP) less contracted out deductions). They will use the larger of these two calculations as your new pension entitlement (called the starting amount)

Now if your pension was bigger under the old rules the DWP took the difference and added it onto your STP figure to make up what is called the Foundation Amount. The bit they added is called the Protected Amount. The resulting figure could be more or less that the current full Single Tier Pension of £155.65 per week. You would only make further NI contributions if it were less. Each additional qualifying year of NI contributions you make between now and state pension age will add £4.45 a week to that starting amount until you reach a max of £155.65 pw (current level but it will go up each year).



It may be possible for you to pay Class 3 NI but not Class 3A (you needed to have reached state pension age before 5.4.16 for those) to make up the shortfall. Alternatively run a self employed business for a few years to state pension age and pay Class 2 NI (Flat rate of £2.80 per week) as they count towards the STP. Don’t need to make a profit just pay the Class 2 NI.

What you need to know is you are certainly no worse off under the new scheme and if you made further NI contributions you could be better off.

Just some food for thought.

Why am I so boring? Because I’ve just spent the last 6 months + surrounded by pensions tax manuals and took the Chartered Pensions exam yesterday. December 2nd is results day. Needless to say the exam is an absolute *ugger of an exam and the subject is vastly more complex than people realise.

Still nothing about window slider brackets.

Andy

[dapinky]

Andy,

that is a great help, thank you.

I've been registered as a 'Sole Trader' for the past 2 years as a Training Provider, but never made a profit ('cos I ensure I only work a couple of weeks a year!!!).

I'll get an up-to date online calculation (it wouldn't confirm my identity when I tried earlier) and see how many Class 2 contributions I need to make to get my maximum State Pension

(Anyway, Pete doesn't need this thread anymore, 'cos he's sorted - until such time as he has amassed all the bits and comes to rebuild it all).

[Artaban]

Happy to help you or anyone else anytime if I can. Need a good pension to keep the cars running.

[epipete]

Wow, from Window Slider to NI Sliding Scales on one thread!

I confess that I was aware of the increase in years of NI but a friend had assured me that I was saved by my 2yrs of A levels (having got in 33yrs service) so had made the 35yrs necessary.

I'm going to have to print Andy's comments out and digest them over a longer period it's a bit more intense than phosphoric acid (Dave).

The financial crisis and coalition govt enforced a career review and I took the early release scheme earlier than intended and in some respects subsequently found the term 'Redundancy' has a very real aspect when it becomes a reality, not merely financial but, more critically, both emotionally and psychologically.

I accept Andy's view about public sector pension schemes, they do look good and perhaps they are comparatively. But the general remuneration package whilst at work did not compare so favourably with private sector (but then, perhaps, neither did the risk - were it not for the low residual values of the M100 there would be few Lotus owners from the Public Sector). Many of my old friends are now coming to a point in life where they see the career choices made years ago may not be bearing the fruit that they would now like.

Rather than making these divisions and wishing public sector retirees ill, I personally would prefer it if we raised the bar for all pensions and pensioners and not advocate a race to the bottom!

[dapinky]

Pete, (and Andy, and anyone else who is reading this),

Firstly, I think you know me well enough to realise that i was being somewhat tongue-in-cheek when i was playing the "Poor Public Servant" card..... Yes, it's not a bad scheme, and without doubt, is paying out more than if I had been in a Private Pension fund, especially if it had been managed by that bloke who owns the newspaper!

Also, I fully appreciate that when paying in, it wasn't just for the final-salary payout, but the tax-free commutation (which I actually had to pay some tax on ), but also the Widows pension, dependents pension etc.

My gripe was (is?) that at the time I joined, there was no option but to join the scheme, with no-one explaining that I would eventually take a reduced State Pension because of it - and not being given the option to top it up, due to that ignorance.... Although in fairness, if I had been given the option of paying in 13% of my salary for what I now have, or paying in less, getting less in the future, but can have an extra couple of beers an evening now - - what would a 20-year-old me have chosen (Clue = )

....anyway, that is water so far under the bridge that it has since evaporated from the ocean due to Global Warming and is now raining down on me!!!

Main thing appears to be that I (and you) have enough 'qualifying years' as of April 2016 to get a reduced SP, and there are options to top it up if we so wish (may or may not be worthwhile depending on life expectancy).

I wonder how many people are in a situation where, through ignorance or head-in-the-sand, they will NOT get the full SP when they think they will. It's one thing them keep changing the date we get it, it is quite another advertising a 'Standard' weekly amount which many will not get.

[/griping]

Andy,
Thanks for your input, as a result of it I have been prompted to look into the issue and raise a thread on the NARPO pages to ascertain how much ignorance there is amongst us, and to get the options available (either as regular Class 2 stamps, or 'lump-sum' payments before the SP kicks in).

Pete,
Did you get any useful information from the CC in a 'Pre-retirement' input? The Police pre-retirement 'course' was just 2 days of some lady explaining how to ensure we still pay tax after retirement, and how to set up as a Sole Trader or Limited Company (and pay tax accordingly) if we wished to..... and some guy from a 'Financial Advisor' service who wanted us all to pay him to invest the lump-sum. {Luckily for me, I didn't have that worry as the ex-Mrs P had already decided what she was going to do with her share of it, and the mortgage took care of the rest }.
There was nothing on how to maximise the pay-out from SP (I appreciate that the rules were different in 2013, but the Opted-out bit was still relevant).

Ah well, I'll just have to 'cope' with what I have....... at least I have choices, and am in a far better position than many who *may* get a full State Pension, but if that is their sole income, then it could be a bleak future.

[epipete]

Ok, I confess a whole load of ignorance on the SP element, and my future entitlement; I'm going to have to do some research but fortunately have plenty of time

Your having a laff Dave, pre retirement pension trg/advice - never heard of it. In fact I don't get much info from the Pension folk now I have left.

I took a look at my circumstances realised that the Recruitment Ban would effectivity end my career. The bar on incremental pay was going to diminish my income, and any future Early Retirement Schemes would be of diminishing quality. So I took the money and ran as it were. I had expected inflation on my pension to increase it against the lack of annual pay awards to level my return at 60 to that that I would have received had I stayed at work. This is slightly off course but not to badly. The main pain has been the reduction in income as I remained unemployed, however it is mainly the taxable element that I have lost, were I to return to work because I'd pay full tax on everything Id earn I need a decent hourly rate to get me out of bed!

[Artaban]

Dave/Pete,
And for anyone else looking to see what fruitful abundance your years of tax and NI contributions will bring. Go to this link:
https://www.gov.uk/check-state-pension
You will need your NI number and most likely passport number and details. You'll then be able to see exactly what state pension you can get in about 5 minutes. One figure will be what you get if you continue to add qualifying years between now and retirement and the other assuming you don't contribute anymore. It will show you any gaps in your NI record and if there is anything you can do about it. You'll be able to go back 6 years and fill in any gaps and it will show you how much Class 3 NI you would need to pay and when the deadline is. On mine I had a few gaps recently and it looked like I would get the money back in 3 years of receiving state pension so not a bad deal if I remain in good health. They are improving the forecast all the time so getting an up to date one is easy now compared to waiting months for it to arrive in the post previously.

When it comes to financial advice I say to people that your adviser should be able to make you more money than you can make yourself and thats after any fees they would charge. With the volatile investment markets and low deposit rates thats not an easy task without taking risks that are probably beyond what most would consider acceptable. Lets all retire to Vietnam..thats cheap.
Andy

[Saltire]

Following this thread with interest, especially Andy's wise counsel, as I am contemplating sliding into retirement over the next 18 months also. Private pot for me though, not public sector.

[dapinky]

Go to this link:
https://www.gov.uk/check-state-pension

Yep, that's the link I can't get past - I've used it previously, but when i went on it the other day it gets as far as sending me an access code, then when I enter it, it tells me that it can't verify my identity

It then gives me a number to call, which when i tried it the other day, I was in a queue for far longer than i was prepared to wait.