Having just checked, I haven’t been credited for my uni years (‘89 to ‘92) but ‘only’ need another 5 years to get the maximum it says I can get of £175.20 a week. Albeit not until 2038... And that extra 5 years only gives me £20 a week in round numbers. But it seems I only need 35 years of contributions? £183 doesn’t seem to be an option for me either!
Having started work at the tail end of final salary pensions (in the private sector), but at the time when hopping between jobs was common, in the ‘90s ‘boom’ just as I was starting my career, my ‘retirement’ income will have multiple streams, which is messy. I can access my personal pension (SIPP) from 55, which is just over 5 years away. Then there are two relatively small final salary pension schemes that pay out at 60, one a little larger that pays out at 67 and then the state pension, currently also 67. Plus a small one which I think is from an opted out component of one of the company schemes.
Diversification is, I suppose, good. But the rule changes over the years have made it difficult to consolidate... I’d happily forgo the final salary certainty and accept a transfer (the values of which, when combined, are material) into the SIPP just to let me access it it sooner. Plus, I have no need for the embedded spousal benefit of the FS schemes now either. But because they all have transfer values >£30k it’s almost impossible to do. Perhaps if Rishi wants to help boost employment opportunities post COVID he could relax the rules, and encourage people like me, who are winding down anyway, to pack it in earlier ;)
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