State pension

[hughnique]

Our letters on the increase this year are, "on their way", having normally received them by now I rang to check they had received our life certificates, which they confirmed had been received.
The question of the state pension is always a bit of a mystery to me, as I said before, many many years ago when I was an apprentice on the Post Office Engineers I remember signing a document to, "opt out" of something to do with the state pension. What it was I have not got a clue, I retired in 2015 and must admit I get a little more than Elsie's figure, perhaps I benefit from this additional payment.

[elsie]

It's complicated!
The opt out was only allowed when you contributed to an occupational pension.
I'll leave it to you to read these
https://www.gov.uk/government/publicati ... ne-service

there was also an earnings related pension https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_Second_Pension
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_Ear ... ion_Scheme

which became a State Second Pension until new State Pension on 6 April 2016
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_Second_Pension

[MAD87]

Just received notice of my pension increase, although I don't think OH has...

[hughnique]

Just received notice of my pension increase, although I don't think OH has...

I expect you will be out on the razzle tonight then

[hughnique]

I remember when I left the Post Office, and subsequently transferring the equity over to the Prudential, the rep from there said to me, "well this is a good pot, you won't want for anything when you retire". Later it was made clear that it had been mis sold and that I would have been better off leaving it with the Post Office scheme. Eventually the Pru banged £12K in to the fund, even so still a piss poor amount but it all helps I suppose.

[MAD87]

Just received notice of my pension increase, although I don't think OH has...

I expect you will be out on the razzle tonight then

Yeah, right.

[Spardo]

I remember when I left the Post Office, and subsequently transferring the equity over to the Prudential, the rep from there said to me, "well this is a good pot, you won't want for anything when you retire". Later it was made clear that it had been mis sold and that I would have been better off leaving it with the Post Office scheme. Eventually the Pru banged £12K in to the fund, even so still a piss poor amount but it all helps I suppose.

I don't ever remember having signed to anything with the Pru but something must have stirred my memory when I retired, so I checked with them, and ever since I have received the princely monthly sum of £27.29.

Can't complain, about 40 odd years ago in rather delicate financial straits, I was summoned to the Revenue to explain why I had not paid tax and insurance for a while. They said I could not dodge the tax but they would forget the missing insurance although it would adversely affect my pension. I agreed readily, and now although I don't get the max, I certainly have enough for what I want. Also I have a suspicion that someone, not me, miscalculated my qualifying years , as I know I have spent a lot of time working out of sight in some pretty wild places.

A bit like my neighbour here who, some years ago when I owned a mini-digger asked me to root out some tree stumps with it. She offered €100/stump and I agreed but, due to the dangerous nature of the task on a sloping terrain, I asked if she would pay for the first one by cheque l'emploi and so give me some measure of social security if I injured or killed myself.

This was done and sometime later when I retired and was informed that I was due both a state pension and a transport industry one, I received a statement showing the amounts and sources of my income. The larger one was from my local haulage company but then there was another one underneath and I now receive about 38 centimes a year from the root stumping.

It all adds up and every little helps.

[MAD87]

My French pensions comprise 3 separate elemnts, now that the number of caisses de retraite has been "reduced". 2 are paid monthly and 1 annually, fortunately all automatically entered in the tax return.

[Ford Focus]

~£8,000 per annum isn't too bad!

[hughnique]

Letters arrived yesterday, better than a poke in the eye with a blunt stick. Spardo's stump removal tale reminded me that when I was an AE electrician, which transpired to be a total waste of time, I did pay some tax on my earnings through the RSA, but have never heard anything about a French pension, except the old biddy at the CPAM office saying I would be entitled to something, but not a dicky bird. Anyway of checking it out, discreetly of course.