SERPS

If you're contracted out of SERPS then you have a pension scheme somewhere, right? This is what the contracted-out rebates will be being paid into by HMRC.

However, the decision to contract in or out is not related to whether you have or have not got a personal pension into which you pay. The decision-making process will include points such as (a) how much do you trust the government to pay what it says it'll pay (b) do you think that the funds into which your rebates are invested will produce a better pension than you would have got by staying contracted in (c) do you want a 25% of fund lump sum when you retire (d) what happens if you die before retirement (e) what happens if you die after retirement (f) are you likely to be in poor health when you retire.

I presume you addressed these issues when you decided to contract out (?). In which case, if nothing has changed then stay contracted out. Otherwise ponder your position again and decide what to do. But it has nothing to do with whether you are paying into the scheme yourself.

Rob Graham

In message , slider writes

The SERPS contributions I made when contracted into the scheme during the 70s/80s adds about 65% to my State pension, which I have been receiving for 10 years now. I find that very useful, as my early retirement company pension is only modest.

The trade union reps advised us to contract out soon after Thatcher came to power, and of course she soon tweaked the scheme, for example the widow's share of SERPS was allowed to wither from 2000 onwards.

I don't pretend to be familiar with the current rules and returns, and the possibility of a Tory government from next May/June may alter the calculations, but I am grateful that it was introduced...

I think you're confused. If you're contracted out, then you have to have a scheme to contract out into (personal or company). If you haven't got a scheme to contract out into, then you should automatically be contracted in.

SERPS is very generous to people of your age - if you were over 16 before 1978 the calcuation effectively gives you the years between age

Well, if "wither" means going down from 100% to 50%. 100% inheritance of SERPS was over generous.

It won't have any effect on people already retired. They've talked about increasing the age for people not yet retired over and above the increases proposed by Turner (even Turner said he should have done more). Labour would probably have to do similar but they haven't got the balls to admit it.