Joining the ranks of the Unemployed

[pete75]

And ensure you get a State Pension Forecast so you know where you are later when you can claim it. I retired early due to privatisation of the electrickery business. Never looked back, i was old enough to have my company pension but had to wait for the state pension. The state pension rules kept changing and they moved the goalposts on several occasions so its worth keeping on top of it. Enjoy your new found freedom.

I've had one and I won't get the full "new state pension". I was contracted out for the last 30 years so due to paying a reduced amount of NI( their words) I will get a reduced pension. This is despite the fact I was paying over £300 a month in NI.

[PH]

Haven't had final figures yet but after tax it will be about 66% of my current income. T

Good luck Pete - you'll know how that income fits your lifestyle better than anyone, but I'd jump at the idea of giving up work for such a small reduction, it'd feel like winning the lottery.

[rjb]

And ensure you get a State Pension Forecast so you know where you are later when you can claim it. I retired early due to privatisation of the electrickery business. Never looked back, i was old enough to have my company pension but had to wait for the state pension. The state pension rules kept changing and they moved the goalposts on several occasions so its worth keeping on top of it. Enjoy your new found freedom.

I've had one and I won't get the full "new state pension". I was contracted out for the last 30 years so due to paying a reduced amount of NI( their words) I will get a reduced pension. This is despite the fact I was paying over £300 a month in NI.

I was also contracted out but was given the option of having my state pension calculated under the old system or the new. I was entitled to a full pension under the old rules which was only approximately 66% of the new state pension, but under the new state pension calculation I would only have received a pittance. You can guess which option I took.

[Niallmo]

Good luck!

At the end of the month I too am leaving work. For me it’s to look after my four and two year old. My wife has had a big enough pay rise in her new job to make it financially viable as we can stop paying for childcare! In September I’d be trying to get the four of us there four different places.

I am very much looking forward to it after 20 odd years in front facing customer service. I do need a real break after some mental health issues about three years ago to do with my job that I’ve not really recovered from.

[pete75]

Haven't had final figures yet but after tax it will be about 66% of my current income. T

Good luck Pete - you'll know how that income fits your lifestyle better than anyone, but I'd jump at the idea of giving up work for such a small reduction, it'd feel like winning the lottery.

Yep. Will be able to get by on the pension so will stop work altogether. Might do a few little jobs like corn carting at harvest and maybe a bit of beating in winter.

[pete75]

And ensure you get a State Pension Forecast so you know where you are later when you can claim it. I retired early due to privatisation of the electrickery business. Never looked back, i was old enough to have my company pension but had to wait for the state pension. The state pension rules kept changing and they moved the goalposts on several occasions so its worth keeping on top of it. Enjoy your new found freedom.

I've had one and I won't get the full "new state pension". I was contracted out for the last 30 years so due to paying a reduced amount of NI( their words) I will get a reduced pension. This is despite the fact I was paying over £300 a month in NI.

I was also contracted out but was given the option of having my state pension calculated under the old system or the new. I was entitled to a full pension under the old rules which was only approximately 66% of the new state pension, but under the new state pension calculation I would only have received a pittance. You can guess which option I took.

Mine will be about £15 a week down. It galls that people who weren't contracted out but paid much less in NI will get the full amount. No reason for this other George Osborn wanted his headline grabbing increase in the flat rate pension to make him look generous but looked around for devious, small print ways to stop a lot of people from actually getting it.

[kwackers]

Mine will be about £15 a week down. It galls that people who weren't contracted out but paid much less in NI will get the full amount. No reason for this other George Osborn wanted his headline grabbing increase in the flat rate pension to make him look generous but looked around for devious, small print ways to stop a lot of people from actually getting it.

I was contracted out for years and then got automatically contracted back in (according to a letter I once received a number of years ago).
I checked online recently when I got my "10 years and counting" old git warning letter and it claimed I had paid enough in to get the full state pension.

[Paulatic]

]

Mine will be about £15 a week down. It galls that people who weren't contracted out but paid much less in NI will get the full amount. No reason for this other George Osborn wanted his headline grabbing increase in the flat rate pension to make him look generous but looked around for devious, small print ways to stop a lot of people from actually getting it.

The way I recall it is I would substitute your words who werent[i][/i] to who didn’t. I don’t recall opting out being compulsory I remember pressure and lots of literature enticing me to opt out. I refused along the lines of if it seems too good to be true it usually is.

[thirdcrank]

... The way I recall it is I would substitute your words who werent[i][/i] to who didn’t. I don’t recall opting out being compulsory I remember pressure and lots of literature enticing me to opt out. I refused along the lines of if it seems too good to be true it usually is.

I can't speak for anybody else's pension scheme but I was contracted out of SERPS by my employer. No choice. By the time I retired I had some graduated pension contributions dating back to the 1960's and when they pulled the plug on that scheme (perhaps 50 years ago) I got a little printout saying my eventual pension entitlement would be enhanced by 6d (2.5p) a week on retirement. The bottom line is that in work, you have little freedom of choice and in retirement, you depend on the current generation of fork-tongued politicians, insurance companies and take-over merchants to honour promises made by their fork-tongued predecessors.

FWIW, I'm financially better off now than at just about any time in my life, largely though a word that Gordo bandied about a lot but did not understand: prudence.

[rjb]

I am very grateful to Gordon, when he threatened to pinch the pension surplus from private companies they decided to give the surplus away and reduce their workforces in the process paying their pensions early and sending them on there way with a golden handshake. Revaluations of pension schemes later when the stock market had fallen revealed they were now in deficit to the tune of in BT's case £14 billion
I am glad i went when i had the chance

[Paulatic]

... The way I recall it is I would substitute your words who werent[i][/i] to who didn’t. I don’t recall opting out being compulsory I remember pressure and lots of literature enticing me to opt out. I refused along the lines of if it seems too good to be true it usually is.

I can't speak for anybody else's pension scheme but I was contracted out of SERPS by my employer. No choice. By the time I retired I had some graduated pension contributions dating back to the 1960's and when they pulled the plug on that scheme (perhaps 50 years ago) I got a little printout saying my eventual pension entitlement would be enhanced by 6d (2.5p) a week on retirement. The bottom line is that in work, you have little freedom of choice and in retirement, you depend on the current generation of fork-tongued politicians, insurance companies and take-over merchants to honour promises made by their fork-tongued predecessors.

FWIW, I'm financially better off now than at just about any time in my life, largely though a word that Gordo bandied about a lot but did not understand: prudence.

A quick google and I can’t find out if your employer could compulsorily opt you out or not. It’s obvious they would want you to as they were better off by contributing less so they’d be happy you did. I just recall all the bumpth trying to convince me I’d be better off if I did. Just didn’t feel right to me.
I also noted those who did opt out were given a 2% bonus for five years as an incentive.
For me the happiest part of stopping work and subsequently getting a pension is that I haven’t paid any income tax for 6 yrs. it would break my heart to give this bunch of Selfservatives a single penny.

[pete75]

A quick google and I can’t find out if your employer could compulsorily opt you out or not. It’s obvious they would want you to as they were better off by contributing less so they’d be happy you did. I just recall all the bumpth trying to convince me I’d be better off if I did. Just didn’t feel right to me.
I also noted those who did opt out were given a 2% bonus for five years as an incentive.
For me the happiest part of stopping work and subsequently getting a pension is that I haven’t paid any income tax for 6 yrs. it would break my heart to give this bunch of Selfservatives a single penny.

If you wanted to join our final salary pension scheme you were contracted out. I suspect this was teh same for most, probably all, such schemes.

No income tax on your pension. Things must be different in Scotland , pensions are certainly taxable in the UK. I'll be paying about £4,500 a year on mine.

[thirdcrank]

I'm telling you as a fact that that some employers could contract out employees from SERPS, subject to certain conditions. I haven't the precise details of exactly who was covered by this but it certainly the case that this applied to the police service and some other similar occupational pensions. One of the broad conditions was that the benefits of the occupational pension had to equal or exceed SERPS. Rather strangely, at some stage it became apparent that the fabled police pension wasn't good enough so, subject to compulsory increased contributions, it was improved with the option to buy backdating. (FWIW, I was under the impression that an individual did not have the personal right to contract out of SERPS unless they had an equal or better private pension, but I'm not confident of that.)

Police pensions in particular, as well as public pensions in general, have been subject to all manner of stealth raids by politicians. We are certainly better off now than many in private schemes which were once more generous but which have been pillaged. We are fortunate that there's a limit to what politicians can get away with.

[Paulatic]

A quick google and I can’t find out if your employer could compulsorily opt you out or not. It’s obvious they would want you to as they were better off by contributing less so they’d be happy you did. I just recall all the bumpth trying to convince me I’d be better off if I did. Just didn’t feel right to me.
I also noted those who did opt out were given a 2% bonus for five years as an incentive.
For me the happiest part of stopping work and subsequently getting a pension is that I haven’t paid any income tax for 6 yrs. it would break my heart to give this bunch of Selfservatives a single penny.

If you wanted to join our final salary pension scheme you were contracted out. I suspect this was teh same for most, probably all, such schemes.

No income tax on your pension. Things must be different in Scotland , pensions are certainly taxable in the UK. I'll be paying about £4,500 a year on mine.

I suspect your pension is considerably larger than mine. I can’t be bothered to work it out but having to pay that much tax is probably an income on which you’d have to pay even more if living in Scotland.

[Paulatic]

I'm telling you as a fact that that some employers could contract out employees from SERPS, subject to certain conditions. I haven't the precise details of exactly who was covered by this but it certainly the case that this applied to the police service and some other similar occupational pensions. One of the broad conditions was that the benefits of the occupational pension had to equal or exceed SERPS. Rather strangely, at some stage it became apparent that the fabled police pension wasn't good enough so, subject to compulsory increased contributions, it was improved with the option to buy backdating. (FWIW, I was under the impression that an individual did not have the personal right to contract out of SERPS unless they had an equal or better private pension, but I'm not confident of that.)

Police pensions in particular, as well as public pensions in general, have been subject to all manner of stealth raids by politicians. We are certainly better off now than many in private schemes which were once more generous but which have been pillaged. We are fortunate that there's a limit to what politicians can get away with.

I found a pensioners forum no I ain’t moving in there. Similar discussion to this and similar uncertainty. Some thought it compulsory others didn’t and declined. It was a gamble which didn’t work out for some but with a police pension I doubt you lost out.
I’ve a friend in the village, ex policeman retired at 50, cycles , walks, visits all over the country/world. He said when he first stopped he felt guilty not working but the guilt only lasted a couple of years.