Your Pension.

20 years non-contributory pension, in 2 years I pick up a lump sum and immediate pension of approx. £12k per year.

It's good, but I will only be 43, so certainly not enough to retire on!
 
Started one beginning of Jan this year.

Company pays in a percentage (currently approx £65.50) per month, I contribute some (approx £25 although I need to increase this at some point), I need to read further as does the government pay some in aswel?
 
I'm currently paying 5% salary sacrifice which is matched by my employer. I could go up to 8% which would also be matched but 5% is enough at the moment.

I have a question which I hope somebody can help me with.

A few years ago, I worked at another firm where I paid into my pension for just under 2 years before leaving. Again, the contributions were matched by my employer. I've just read online that I can get my contributions back and pay the 20% tax on the income as would have been deducted at the time.

Would I be entitled to receive the employer contributions also? Or just my own? And if the latter, what happens to the employer contributions?
 
DJMK4 said:
Started one beginning of Jan this year.

Company pays in a percentage (currently approx £65.50) per month, I contribute some (approx £25 although I need to increase this at some point), I need to read further as does the government pay some in aswel?
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If it's an Auto-Enrolment (NEST) scheme, the plan is that the government will add 1% contributions but I don't think it has been implemented yet.


Edit: If it's a non NEST scheme you've joined then the government wont contribute beyond the normal 20%/40% Tax relief. If it is NEST then at the moment you get the normal tax relief and they will increase the tax relief to equal 1% contributions in either 2017 or 2018 (they keep changing it). Minimum Employee and Employer conts will also be going up so that post 2017/2018 total conts (employee/employer/goverment) equals 8%.
 
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DJMK4 said:
Started one beginning of Jan this year.

Company pays in a percentage (currently approx £65.50) per month, I contribute some (approx £25 although I need to increase this at some point), I need to read further as does the government pay some in aswel?
Click to expand...

I think you're referring to the take your pension contribution will be gross. I.e. the amount you put in your wallet is net of tax. The government add whatever tax you paid on the amount going into your pension as you will get taxed when you retire instead. The idea is it is not fair to double tax people... but then again double taxation occurs in loads of places!
 
Im pretty sure it must be NEST, I recently had a letter which was included in the welcome pack which mentioned something about government contributions, but have not had a chance to read it fully yet, all I caught was something like you may need to raise your contributions slightly to get the government contribution also.
 
DJMK4 said:
Im pretty sure it must be NEST, I recently had a letter which was included in the welcome pack which mentioned something about government contributions, but have not had a chance to read it fully yet, all I caught was something like you may need to raise your contributions slightly to get the government contribution also.
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You need to be paying 4% conts in 2017/18, your employer then pays 3% and the government will put in 1%.

These are all minimums so you or your employer could pay more.
 
Just looked at my payslip I pay in £148 and my company pays in £283 so £430 odd going into my final salary pension a month. Ive had it since I was 17 so 8 years ago now.
 
KingOfTheDaves said:
You need to be paying 4% conts in 2017/18, your employer then pays 3% and the government will put in 1%.

These are all minimums so you or your employer could pay more.
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4% net? Because that makes sense that the Government puts in 1% to bring it to gross. If it's 1% gross then how does that go up with your contribution?
 
It's net It's gross but to be honest I'm not 100% on all of it, a lot of the stuff that has come from the government on NEST has been pretty wishy-washy.

The 1% the government actually puts in, is in the form of additonal tax relief rather than a 'contribution'. I'm sure when it comes round to it there will be some irate payroll departments trying to work it all out.

Edit: It is gross I think? I'm not sure how it's going to be calculated but post 2017/18. I'm just confusing myself
 
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Self employed so fund my own pension - £300 net a month at the moment and usually chuck in a lump sum at tax year end. Pension contributions goes up 10% each year automatically.

High risk investments/shares just now so happy to take a punt. Made around 35% last year.
 
I'm enrolled in LGPS, got three years of final salary but all subsequent contributory years will be towards a career average scheme. My contribution is 5.8% but can increase as my wages do.
 
Started 3 weeks ago, 5% but get some tax back so works out at about 2.7%. Final salary based 1/60 etc etc
 
HM Forces pensions for me. Received them on Med discharge 2 years ago. I get two and both are tax free.

No idea about old age pension I'm sure it will have been taken away if I make it to the age needed....
 
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I need to sort something out, I worked as a civil servant for since leaving uni and was on a pretty decent deal. The last year however I've gone into the private sector and have been a bit slack sorting anything out.

I didn't see the programme 'Who wants to live forever?' but I know I won't be, the master plan is to pay off the mortgage as soon as possible then get a nice part time job to comfortably pay the bills. I know things change in life but that's the plan at the moment.
 
Speaking as a retired person with a final salary pension that was accrued over 27 years and gives me a comfortable retirement, I really feel sorry for the youngsters of today.
They are going to have to contribute more than I had to, work for a lot more years and get a pittance when they retire.
Final salary schemes are few and far between now and the defined benefit schemes are designed to give the pension companies more and the pensioner less.
 
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