What happens to your pension when you have been made redundant?

[Tortington]

financially savvy is not a term used to describe me.

so make this simple!

i have paid into a final salary pension for 8 years.

when i get another job, how do i reconcile the pension i get in the new job.

does the one with my current employer sit there to be drawn on upon retirement.

or does my new employer add to it

or do i somehow draw it out and put it into the new employment pension plan

i have asked at work, but they answer me in a language i am sure i am supposed to understand, but don't

any information would be useful ASAP please as tomorrow i am to hand in my badge and be escorted off the premises

thanks

If you are in a final salary pension plan, then you are almost certainly best to leave the money where it is. They ought to write to you when you leave the job to explain what you are entitled to and what your choices are. But, in general, the money you have put into that pension stays there and when you retire you can draw it out. The amount will depend on how many years they expect you to pay in to get the full amount, and what % of your salary they give out as a pension.

So (imaginary figures here!) if you worked in the same job for 40 years, and would get 50% of your final salary as an annual pension, you would now get 8/40 of that 50% of salary, since you've only been paying in for 8 years. You'll have to check out the paperwork to find out the figures for your scheme, but the letter after you leave the job will probably tell you anyway.

When you start a new job, you'll get a separate pension from them. If you have lots of different jobs with pensions, then when you retire you will get a bit of money from each of them.

Depends what type of pension it is.

Oops, missed the world final salary. Ignore me!

As has already been said, you are almost certainly better off leaving your pension where it is.

The amount you'll get when you retire will be 8/40 (or 8/60, depending on your scheme) of your current salary but... the amount you're entitled to will increase by a small percentage each year to allow for inflation.

It is worth getting a pension statement asap for your records.

thank you.

how do i get it when i retire? i presume there will be contact details sent and such is that correct?

Yes, that's correct. You can get the contact details for the pension administrator from your HR dept. It's useful to have them as you'll need to notify them whenever you change address.

When you get close to retirement (the retirement age of that scheme which may not be when you actually retire) you will be contacted by the pension administrator. This is why you need to keep them up to date with your address. If you aren't contacted by them you'll need to chase them up.

righto - thanks

you should get a letter when you leave, my final salary pension is handed to a company whose name i have forgotten and it's up to them to keep in touch with me.

the company is called something like centrica (but not them cause they're the gas people aren't they )

i'd leave it a few months and if you haven't heard then make sure you contact the people currently administering your pension (who you should have been getting an annual statement from).

it's capita csp.capitahartshead.co.uk/index.htm not centrica!