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misled over a pension update

This morning I received a letter from the Financial Advisor who arranged my pension with a copy of my original signed agreement (I should have insisted upon this at the time). Under the box "Contracting Out" the date for contracting out has been crossed out and the FA has written "DOES NOT WANT TO CONTRACT OUT" in capitols.

Therefore how is it possible for me to have been contracted out of S2P? What can I do about this?

The FA has contacted the pensions company asking for an urgent explanation and said he will get back to me.

Reply to
Mick
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"Mick" wrote

Ask that they "buy you back in".

I'm not sure about nowadays, but previously under SERPS (forerunner of S2P), someone who was contracted-out with a company scheme and left within 2 years with a refund of premiums, often had a CEP ("Contributions Equivalent Premium") paid to DSS to counteract the short period of contracting out. So there may well still be a route to do this now - certainly worth checking if you'd prefer not to be contracted-out (which it sounds is true here).

If they *cannot* buy you back into S2P, you should ask for compensation - could be calculated along the lines of a Pension Review, comparing the situation being left in S2P to your current position.

Reply to
Tim

Thanks for the reply Tim. The Inland Revenue have sent me a Form CA1543 which is a "Cancellation Notice to stop payment of Minimum Contributions". I do not at this moment in time want to complete this form as I would like to find out first what has happened. I do not want to be in worse situation than I would otherwise have been in had not this 'mistake' been committed. I am calling it a mistake for the time being. I am thinking about possible compensation and approaching the Ombudsperson, but first of all I will see what sort of reply the FA gets off the pension company.

Reply to
Mick

Based on this contract you haven't. You could have done via another pension.

If you want to contract out (work through the FSA chart and browse the other search results to double check ) write a complaint to the FA stating that an unauthorised change to the contract was made (don't say by who unless he admitted it) after signing and you want an explanation and your wish to contract out acted upon.

Why ? Does he deny or admit changing the contract ? ie was it in fact the pension company ?

At the end of the day you can contract out/in every year, so any damage is limited.

Daytona

Reply to
Daytona

I haven't done another pension since 2002 when I was contracted out. The IR, and the Pensions Office both told me that I had been contracted out into the Scottish Equitable pension. Scottish Equitable confirmed this over the phone.

My wish, which was confirmed in the application to Scottish Equitable and a subsequent letter from the FA was to remain in S2P.

No he does not. Far from it. He sent me a copy of the contract which looked entirely in order. As I said in my original post the application states in bold letters "DOES NOT WISH TO CONTRACT OUT" with the date for contracting out crossed out by the FA.

Reply to
Mick

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