Pensions..........Make some checks.....

[TroubleinDaFamily]

It occurs to me that there are a lot of people on here who say they have no pension of which to speak...

We would have been in that camp until a few years ago, when I forced and I mean forced DH into doing the legwork required to track down pension infomation.

We knew we had a savings pot from his and his current employers contributions as some sort of backup.

But he was dodging the other ones as he was convinced that they had underperformed.

One was a final salary scheme and a lot better than he had thought, but before his career took off, so good but not amazing. IYKWIM

So it maybe worth investigating.

Just a thought.

I think that’s all well if you think at some point you may have paid into an occupational pension but I actually think on here when people say they have no pension they mean they have no pension. Not forgotten one that’s underperforming

How would a final salary scheme underperform? I also imagine that when people say they have no pension that’s because they haven’t got it rather than being disorganised with it.

Does anyone know... what's the minimum amount of time you held a job for, where it's worth chasing a pension? A job you had for just one year?

Well, any job when you were enrolled in a pension, of course!
Why would you waste money?

The worked for a high street chain as a student - you were auto enrolled to the pension if you earned more than £x in a month. But you could opt out. I was auto enrolled for 2 months of lots of overtime before I opted out.

That 1996.

I'd love to say I now have thousands through the miracle of compound interest.

I don't - but it's £100. Why would I not chase that up?

Any firm you may have made a single payment with, chase it up. (Use the pension tracing service)

I post on MSE Pensions forum - I cannot believe how many people have totally lost touch with previous pensions and discover 4 and 5 figure number ones!

It's like PPI to me - no windfalls for me because I never took it out in the first place. No surprise pension because I've always known what I was paying and keep paperwork. It is worth writing down your work history and making sure you know about everything.

How could I find out if I have? I think I have in the past but can't remember where exactly

There's a Pension Tracing Service - I used this to find a pension from a company that is no longer in existence.

Also, it is definitely worth following up on any pension, even if you only paid in for a short time. If the benefits of that pension aren't great, you may be able to transfer it to a pension scheme with a new employer so it gets added to your pot there.