Lump sum.

[windermeredave]

Hi, I`ve not been on here for a while but I`ve just been made aware of something I could be missing out on through my own potential ignorance.

I started on RM in November 1985 and finished Christmas 2016 aged 65 and 4 months, I got a lump sum of £45k in August 2011 when I turned 60 and assumed that was it and discontinued my payments into the scheme because I thought-rightly or wrongly- it was pointless for just another 5 years.

However I was having a chat with an ex-colleague the other day and he told me he got £44k when he was 60 and another £20ish when he turned 65.
What am I missing here?

I just can`t work it out, I spoke to a lady on the phone when I rang the royal mail pension hotline that was about has useful as a chocolate ashtray.
I just need some useful advise to tell me if I should push it any further.

How could my friend get an extra 20 grand over 5 years when I`ve got nothing?

Cheers

[Jaggs]

Without knowing the exact circumstances of the 2 of you it will be impossible to know the complete reason for the difference. Had you done roughly the same years and retired at the same time? Had they paid AVCs so got a lump sum from that?

[freespeech]

Hi, I`ve not been on here for a while but I`ve just been made aware of something I could be missing out on through my own potential ignorance.

I started on RM in November 1985 and finished Christmas 2016 aged 65 and 4 months, I got a lump sum of £45k in August 2011 when I turned 60 and assumed that was it and discontinued my payments into the scheme because I thought-rightly or wrongly- it was pointless for just another 5 years.

However I was having a chat with an ex-colleague the other day and he told me he got £44k when he was 60 and another £20ish when he turned 65.
What am I missing here?

I just can`t work it out, I spoke to a lady on the phone when I rang the royal mail pension hotline that was about has useful as a chocolate ashtray.
I just need some useful advise to tell me if I should push it any further.

How could my friend get an extra 20 grand over 5 years when I`ve got nothing?

Cheers

There are potentially three retirement stages with RM pensions. One at NRA (normal retirement age) 60, the second at 65 and the new one is NRA67. Your statements from before 2016 would have shown you NRA60 and 65.

[freespeech]

Hi, I`ve not been on here for a while but I`ve just been made aware of something I could be missing out on through my own potential ignorance.

I started on RM in November 1985 and finished Christmas 2016 aged 65 and 4 months, I got a lump sum of £45k in August 2011 when I turned 60 and assumed that was it and discontinued my payments into the scheme because I thought-rightly or wrongly- it was pointless for just another 5 years.

However I was having a chat with an ex-colleague the other day and he told me he got £44k when he was 60 and another £20ish when he turned 65.
What am I missing here?

I just can`t work it out, I spoke to a lady on the phone when I rang the royal mail pension hotline that was about has useful as a chocolate ashtray.
I just need some useful advise to tell me if I should push it any further.

How could my friend get an extra 20 grand over 5 years when I`ve got nothing?

Cheers

There are potentially three retirement stages with RM pensions. One at NRA (normal retirement age) 60, the second at 65 and the new one is NRA67. Your statements from before 2016 would have shown you NRA60 and 65.

[RobertT]

Hi, I`ve not been on here for a while but I`ve just been made aware of something I could be missing out on through my own potential ignorance.

I started on RM in November 1985 and finished Christmas 2016 aged 65 and 4 months, I got a lump sum of £45k in August 2011 when I turned 60 and assumed that was it and discontinued my payments into the scheme because I thought-rightly or wrongly- it was pointless for just another 5 years.

Did you just take your Age60 pension in August 2011?
If so, you should also have some Age65 benefits, relating to April 2010-Aug 2011.
If you stopped paying in at that point, you will have missed out on another 5 years of Age65 pension.

Or did you take all Age60 and Age65 in 2011?
If so, you won't have been able to pay into that scheme from then on and so wouldn't have been able to accrue any more pension.
Although you may have been auto enrolled into the RMDCP(via Zurich at the time) at some point between 2011-2016.

However I was having a chat with an ex-colleague the other day and he told me he got £44k when he was 60 and another £20ish when he turned 65.
What am I missing here?
How could my friend get an extra 20 grand over 5 years when I`ve got nothing?

Maybe they paid into their Age65 until 2018 and then into the Cash Balance after that?
Maybe they had AVC's?
Maybe they had higher pensionable pay than you?
When did they start and leave?

[heapsy]

Hi, I`ve not been on here for a while but I`ve just been made aware of something I could be missing out on through my own potential ignorance.

I started on RM in November 1985 and finished Christmas 2016 aged 65 and 4 months, I got a lump sum of £45k in August 2011 when I turned 60 and assumed that was it and discontinued my payments into the scheme because I thought-rightly or wrongly- it was pointless for just another 5 years.

However I was having a chat with an ex-colleague the other day and he told me he got £44k when he was 60 and another £20ish when he turned 65.
What am I missing here?

I just can`t work it out, I spoke to a lady on the phone when I rang the royal mail pension hotline that was about has useful as a chocolate ashtray.
I just need some useful advise to tell me if I should push it any further.

How could my friend get an extra 20 grand over 5 years when I`ve got nothing?

Cheers

Sounds like you just stopped paying in to the pension. As you were section B, that was quite a big mistake. I was section C, and paid in until the scheme closed. Even I've got about £35k coming at 65, and it's still growing.

[windermeredave]

Thanks for the replies gentlemen, I did enquire a few week back and today I got this letter, excuse my ignorance but can anybody explain it to me?

pension.jpg

[Wullie10]

Looks like you took your NRA 65 alongside your NRA 60 on your 60th birthday. And you continued working till 65 without any more contributions. Sad to say you've had the lot and won't receive any more.
Shame you never received any advice at the time. You are not the first. But you've lost five years worth of contributions (60 to 65 ) and had a reduced NRA 65 pension for taking it early. A double whammy.
It stinks in my opinion that people are not advised. Apart from this forum there is no help . ( the 20 grand your mate received at 65 is what you gave up when you stopped paying in at 60 )

[freespeech]

Looks like you took your NRA 65 alongside your NRA 60 on your 60th birthday. And you continued working till 65 without any more contributions. Sad to say you've had the lot and won't receive any more.
Shame you never received any advice at the time. You are not the first. But you've lost five years worth of contributions (60 to 65 ) and had a reduced NRA 65 pension for taking it early. A double whammy.
It stinks in my opinion that people are not advised. Apart from this forum there is no help . ( the 20 grand your mate received at 65 is what you gave up when you stopped paying in at 60 )

Whilst the nuances and detailed information has been difficult to ascertain, the basics about NRA60/65/67 were sent to us all over the years and usually with an invite to logging onto the various websites or reading a booklet or watching a video. On top of that we have had annual statements. Some of the responsibilty for understanding our pensions lies with us all as individuals and I still have information from "POPS" from back in the '80's.

[Wullie10]

To be fair most people find pensions dull and a long way off and have a hundred problems today without worrying about 30 or 40 years into the future. And pensions are forever changing. You only have to look at the Royal Mail pension since 1985 to see that. No one can seriously say they are easy to understand. Just look at the posts on here to see that. Even Robert sometimes struggles understanding certain stuff. I agree everyone should take responsibility for their own retirement but you can't say they make it easy to understand. You only have to look at the Waspi women . No one can say they weren't informed of changes yet millions claim they had no idea.

[RobertT]

Thanks for the replies gentlemen, I did enquire a few week back and today I got this letter, excuse my ignorance but can anybody explain it to me?pension.jpg

I can't add too much to the basics of what's already been said, but I can add a bit of meat onto the bones.

Age60 benefits were accrued up to April 2010.
Age65 was April 2010-2018.
Cash Balance April 2018-Oct 2024 - to fund a lump sum predominantly with Age65.

The RMSPS have confirmed that in August 2011 you took both your Age60 and Age65 benefits. So up to that point you only had about 16 months worth of Age65, which was reduced because you took it 5 years early.

Once you've started to take those benefits, you couldn't continue to contribute to them, so you didn't build up any more Age65 pension beyond 2011.

Had you just taken your Age60 at that point, you could have carried on paying into Age65 until you left RM in 2016 and so accrued a total of about 6.5 years worth of Age65 instead.

Everyone will have differing amounts of pension entitlement depending on which scheme they're in, pensionable pay, length of service, etc.

You don't mention when your colleague started or finished, but to accumulate a £20k Age65 lump sum they would need to have paid into it for a lot longer than your 16 months. I would guess that at least some of it would be via the Cash Balance, and so they left sometime after 2018?

On a different note, the government introduced auto enrolment in 2012, which mandated every company to offer their workers a pension if they weren't already paying into one. Although there's no compulsion for workers to join.

As a large employer, RM were one of the first to do that and the scheme used was the RM Defined Contribution Plan.

So I assume you would have been put in that at some point between 2012-2016?
If so you would have either:

1. Opted out; or
2. Paid in and already accessed your cash ; or
3. Paid in and still have your pot of cash.

If you think option 3 applies, get in touch with RMDCP/Scottish Widows. Details in the link below. V