Retiring

[SWP's back]

Thank you for the reply. Just got to eat shit for the next 15 years and then fingers crossed I'll be in good enough health to spend my pension on hookers and coke for a good ten years.
I'll probably waste the rest.

Remember you can take the DC without penalty from age 55 (including the PCLS - tax free lump sum) and you could take the DB earlier although it’s likely your scheme would reduce it considerably.

 

[Kazzydeyna]

Remember you can take the DC without penalty from age 55 (including the PCLS - tax free lump sum) and you could take the DB earlier although it’s likely your scheme would reduce it considerably.

Thanks. Yes, the DB figure reduces dramatically if I take it before 66. Something like 5% less for every year under 66 so about half if I took it at 55 along with a correspondingly smaller lump sum too.

I thank god I'm the age I am. If I was my kids age today these sort of pensions are almost impossible to get. And I've never had what you'd call amazing jobs either. Just lucky my employee for all those years had a final salary scheme.

 

[abu13]

With regard to the state pension, i have checked on the government website and me any the missus have one year each to contribute to get the full state pension.

But i am unsure of the COPE element of the figures so any help would be appreciated.

The wife works in a school and her COPE is showing at £7.54 per week.
I have always worked in the private sector and my COPE is showing at £58.80 per week.

So am i correct in saying that we take the maximum figure of £177 a week or whatever it is and then deduct the COPE and that leaves the figure that we would receive from the Government?

 

[RobMCFC]

With regard to the state pension, i have checked on the government website and me any the missus have one year each to contribute to get the full state pension.

But i am unsure of the COPE element of the figures so any help would be appreciated.

The wife works in a school and her COPE is showing at £7.54 per week.
I have always worked in the private sector and my COPE is showing at £58.80 per week.

So am i correct in saying that we take the maximum figure of £177 a week or whatever it is and then deduct the COPE and that leaves the figure that we would receive from the Government?

There was some discussion on the COPE figure on this thread a few weeks ago. As I understand it, you do NOT have to subtract the COPE figure - they are just showing how much your contracted-out pension should be paying you. It’s for guidance only.

If it says £177, then that’s what the government will pay you (subject to change if laws/rules change before you reach state pension age, of course).

Checked mine a few weeks ago and mine’s about £175 as I have a few years contracted out.

 

[Millwallawayveteran1988]

With regard to the state pension, i have checked on the government website and me any the missus have one year each to contribute to get the full state pension.

But i am unsure of the COPE element of the figures so any help would be appreciated.

The wife works in a school and her COPE is showing at £7.54 per week.
I have always worked in the private sector and my COPE is showing at £58.80 per week.

So am i correct in saying that we take the maximum figure of £177 a week or whatever it is and then deduct the COPE and that leaves the figure that we would receive from the Government?

No. That’s not correct.

Your state pension forecast explained - Which?

Checking your state pension forecast will help you get a better idea of how much you can expect to receive and whether you can increase this amount.

www.which.co.uk

 

[ganganvince]

There was some discussion on the COPE figure on this thread a few weeks ago. As I understand it, you do NOT have to subtract the COPE figure - they are just showing how much your contracted-out pension should be paying you. It’s for guidance only.

If it says £177, then that’s what the government will pay you (subject to change if laws/rules change before you reach state pension age, of course).

Checked mine a few weeks ago and mine’s about £175 as I have a few years contracted out.

That's correct

 

[abu13]

There was some discussion on the COPE figure on this thread a few weeks ago. As I understand it, you do NOT have to subtract the COPE figure - they are just showing how much your contracted-out pension should be paying you. It’s for guidance only.

If it says £177, then that’s what the government will pay you (subject to change if laws/rules change before you reach state pension age, of course).

Checked mine a few weeks ago and mine’s about £175 as I have a few years contracted out.

Thank f**k for that,

I have 14 years to go yet and was thinking that the £175.20 less the £58.80 would mean I only would get £116.40 a week x 52 weeks = £6052 a year.
I thought i was going to have to fund the £3k shortfall from my Company pension.

If that's not the case and I will get the full £175.20 as it stands today i might actually get some sleep tonight.

 

[denislawsbackheel]

Thank f**k for that,

I have 14 years to go yet and was thinking that the £175.20 less the £58.80 would mean I only would get £116.40 a week x 52 weeks = £6052 a year.
I thought i was going to have to fund the £3k shortfall from my Company pension.

If that's not the case and I will get the full £175.20 as it stands today i might actually get some sleep tonight.

the poster is wrong.
See my post below.
You can buy up to 6 missing years by making voluntary class 3 contributions of circa £800 a year. You get it back within 3 years through extra pension payments.
Have you gone on line and asked for a forecast?

 

[denislawsbackheel]

No. That’s not correct.

Your state pension forecast explained - Which?

Checking your state pension forecast will help you get a better idea of how much you can expect to receive and whether you can increase this amount.

www.which.co.uk

Have you read that?

It clearly says COPE is taken off your state pension and should be made up by your work pension.

This quote is from your link.

“COPE is the equivalent of the additional state pension you would have got if you had not been contracted out of it during your career, meaning you save more into a private pension instead of the additional state pension. So you won’t get this as part of your state pension, but should get it instead from your workplace or personal pension scheme for the periods you were contracted out.”

 

[ganganvince]

Have you read that?
It clearly says COPE is taken off your state pension and should be made up by your work pension.

Had an appointment with pension wise a couple of weeks ago to discuss this and the COPE figure is for reference only the figure you recieve is the one on front page

 

[RobMCFC]

Thank f**k for that,

I have 14 years to go yet and was thinking that the £175.20 less the £58.80 would mean I only would get £116.40 a week x 52 weeks = £6052 a year.
I thought i was going to have to fund the £3k shortfall from my Company pension.

If that's not the case and I will get the full £175.20 as it stands today i might actually get some sleep tonight.

I’ve got 14 years to go as well - and I’m pretty sure £175.20 is my figure also.

Have you read that?

It clearly says COPE is taken off your state pension and should be made up by your work pension.

This quote is from your link.

“COPE is the equivalent of the additional state pension you would have got if you had not been contracted out of it during your career, meaning you save more into a private pension instead of the additional state pension. So you won’t get this as part of your state pension, but should get it instead from your workplace or personal pension scheme for the periods you were contracted out.”

I don’t believe that is correct. I’ll have to dig out the link where I found the explanation when I get on my PC tomorrow. Like most things organised by the government, they seem to have made a simple maths problem really complicated.

What they are saying is that you’d have got even more than the figure they quote (e.g. £175) if you weren’t contracted out, but because of this, the COPE figure (e.g. £50) will be asssumed to be paid by your private pension. That’s how I understood it anyway.

 

[abu13]

the poster is wrong.
See my post below.
You can buy up to 6 missing years by making voluntary class 3 contributions of circa £800 a year. You get it back within 3 years through extra pension payments.
Have you gone on line and asked for a forecast?

I haven't missed any years entitlement, i have only been out of work for 2 weeks in my whole working life.
So i don't think this applies in my case.

 

[manclad]

Had an appointment with pension wise a couple of weeks ago to discuss this and the COPE figure is for reference only the figure you recieve is the one on front page

100% this. After the false information put on this thread about COPE I also had a couple of sleepless nights trying to figure out what was correct/incorrect.
I eventually spoke to my financial advisor ( a guy who I PAY to give me the correct advice regarding my pension)
And he said it is only there for reference only,it has no direct bearing on what your state pension will be, and is basically best to be completely ignored.

 

[abu13]

I’ve got 14 years to go as well - and I’m pretty sure £175.20 is my figure also.


I don’t believe that is correct. I’ll have to dig out the link where I found the explanation when I get on my PC tomorrow. Like most things organised by the government, they seem to have made a simple maths problem really complicated.

What they are saying is that you’d have got even more than the figure they quote (e.g. £175) if you weren’t contracted out, but because of this, the COPE figure (e.g. £50) will be asssumed to be paid by your private pension. That’s how I understood it anyway.

This is how I now understand it.

 

[Tommy_Catons_Perm]

How is my state pension affected by being contracted out?

I am a 53-year-old man who has worked since leaving school. I belonged to a company pension which required me to be 'contracted out' for 18 years. How will this affect my state pension?

www.thisismoney.co.uk

 

[Tommy_Catons_Perm]

With regard to the state pension, i have checked on the government website and me any the missus have one year each to contribute to get the full state pension.

But i am unsure of the COPE element of the figures so any help would be appreciated.

The wife works in a school and her COPE is showing at £7.54 per week.
I have always worked in the private sector and my COPE is showing at £58.80 per week.

So am i correct in saying that we take the maximum figure of £177 a week or whatever it is and then deduct the COPE and that leaves the figure that we would receive from the Government?

See above link

 

[paulchapo]

Thank f**k for that,

I have 14 years to go yet and was thinking that the £175.20 less the £58.80 would mean I only would get £116.40 a week x 52 weeks = £6052 a year.
I thought i was going to have to fund the £3k shortfall from my Company pension.

If that's not the case and I will get the full £175.20 as it stands today i might actually get some sleep tonight.

Yes I had the same panic when I was considering taking early retirement and got my projected state pension forecast. There at the bottom was this cope figure of just over £46 a week. I breathed a sigh of relief after meeting the pension wise lady when she reassured me that wouldn't be deducted from my projected weekly figure, it was just the extra I WOULD have got if I hadn't been contracted out. I wish they would make it easier for people to understand as reading threads here I'm not the only one who panicked on reading it wrongly.

 

[flook]

See above link

This is the significant bit from that link

However, the good news is that you may still get a full ‘flat rate’ pension of £175.20 when you retire. This is because all of the years you work from 16/17 onwards are adding to your pension and slowly wiping out the impact of the deduction for contracting out.

Which confirms that you CAN get the full SP so long as your "contracted in" period is a total of 35 years. If you have less than 35 years at state pension age, you lose about £5/week (according to the article), so if you have 32 years contributions, your SP would be £160

At least, I think that's what it means.......

 

[manclad]

Yes I had the same panic when I was considering taking early retirement and got my projected state pension forecast. There at the bottom was this cope figure of just over £46 a week. I breathed a sigh of relief after meeting the pension wise lady when she reassured me that wouldn't be deducted from my projected weekly figure, it was just the extra I WOULD have got if I hadn't been contracted out. I wish they would make it easier for people to understand as reading threads here I'm not the only one who panicked on reading it wrongly.

Yes, it really flipped me out about 5/6 weeks ago.
But then I don't know the difference between shit and shinola, so I made sure that I got top class professional advice to put my mind at rest.

 

[paulchapo]

Yes, it really flipped me out about 5/6 weeks ago.
But then I don't know the difference between shit and shinola, so I made sure that I got top class professional advice to put my mind at rest.

Yes £46 a week is a big amount to lose on a reduced income so I was pleased.