Contracted out pensions scheme ( COPE)

[denislawsbackheel]

I’ll have them..

 

[Blue Til Death]

Mine says £61.91 per week COPE but how do I claim it??

 

[paulchapo]

I enquired a few years ago now and mine was £46 a month. This is the extra I would have received in my state pension if I wasn't contracted out. I'm led to believe this was paid into my private pension so sadly I fear there's no pot of gold waiting for me somewhere.

 

[Blue Til Death]

I enquired a few years ago now and mine was £46 a month. This is the extra I would have received in my state pension if I wasn't contracted out. I'm led to believe this was paid into my private pension so sadly I fear there's no pot of gold waiting for me somewhere.

I suspect I’m in the same boat mate with my £61.91 :-(

 

[GornikDaze]

I enquired a few years ago now and mine was £46 a month. This is the extra I would have received in my state pension if I wasn't contracted out. I'm led to believe this was paid into my private pension so sadly I fear there's no pot of gold waiting for me somewhere.

I think you might be surprised how much your pot might be worth and you should definitely try to track it down. Even if it were only worth £20k, that’s £5k tax free and the balance to supplement taxable income

 

[GornikDaze]

I suspect I’m in the same boat mate with my £61.91 :-(

See above :)

 

[paulchapo]

I think you might be surprised how much your pot might be worth and you should definitely try to track it down. Even if it were only worth £20k, that’s £5k tax free and the balance to supplement taxable income

I think it's added to my private pension.

 

[Citizen of Legoland]

I enquired a few years ago now and mine was £46 a month. This is the extra I would have received in my state pension if I wasn't contracted out. I'm led to believe this was paid into my private pension so sadly I fear there's no pot of gold waiting for me somewhere.

That isn't necessarily quite right AFAIK (happy to be corrected by others). The maximum 'new' state pension at the moment is £221.20 pw which I currently am fully paid up in to qualify for. My COPE amount shown is £35 pw but that couldn't be added to the state pension if I had not contracted out, however it is an estimate of what my contracted out contributions could be worth now, but they are now part of my personal pension. I think some of us have made a little win really as if we hadn't contracted out we would have lost that amount.

I'm going to have to check my pension statements though as I contracted out and had my payments made into my personal pension (I think) but then stopped my personal payments for a few years. I'm guessing the contributions carried on into it even though I wasn't contributing any money myself, I seem to recall a statement showing that, but it's all been transferred to a new provider who doesn't split all that out.

 

[GornikDaze]

That isn't necessarily quite right AFAIK (happy to be corrected by others). The maximum 'new' state pension at the moment is £221.20 pw which I currently am fully paid up in to qualify for. My COPE amount shown is £35 pw but that couldn't be added to the state pension if I had not contracted out, however it is an estimate of what my contracted out contributions could be worth now, but they are now part of my personal pension. I think some of us have made a little win really as if we hadn't contracted out we would have lost that amount.

I'm going to have to check my pension statements though as I contracted out and had my payments made into my personal pension (I think) but then stopped my personal payments for a few years. I'm guessing the contributions carried on into it even though I wasn't contributing any money myself, I seem to recall a statement showing that, but it's all been transferred to a new provider who doesn't split all that out.

Regarding your second paragraph - contracting out via personal pensions ended in 2012 (although some providers chose to end before that date). So your contracted out payments could have carried on until 2012, but in all likely hood could have stopped before this date.
All dates and explanation in the Aberdeen (stupidly rebranded as Abrdn!!!) article below:

Contracting out

Techzone explains what contracting out was, how it worked under different types of scheme and how the abolition of contracting out affects the rights that had been…

techzone.abrdn.com

 

[flook]

Legoland is pretty much nailed on there, the COPE figure is an estimate of what your contracted out amounts would return via the private pension into which they were paid. In my case my COPE was £18pw (less than £1k per year) When I tracked my pension down I found it will actually pay me over £4.5k per year from the age of 65, with a very small (1%) increase per annum from that point.

Well worth finding lost pensions, compound interest is king over 30 years or so