Pension Warnings

People were warned yesterday that they need to do more to save for their old age with the caveat that the Pension Industry needs to be simpler to understand and more efficient. It appears that many people are dubious about Private Pension Schemes and this is something I understand only too well from personal experience.

After quite a few years working for one company I moved to another. My pension with the first company was supposed to be preserved; during the ensuing years I made a number of requests to be allowed to remove the assets to a different scheme but each was refused. After several promotions I worked in a senior position for another company a few years later and when I left to go to college, I had a substantial reserved pension which I thought would be a very good addition to my Church Pension.

When I retired the first company wrote to me to tell me that the total available was insufficient to produce any sort of pension so they were intending with permission from the “authorities” to pay me a lump sum which amounted to a laughable amount of just over £200. In the case of the second, due to a certain Chancellor, the amount available for pension provision was severely reduced and I have ended up with a pension which amounts to £8 a week paid half yearly. When the pension was preserved, around 1983, I had a letter telling me that it’s current value was around £12 per week but it would continue to grow until I could draw it at 65, or later if I so desired. Over the years I received statements showing the growth in the fund and I felt quite confident that I would receive at least £20/25 a week. However the taxation imposed by the Chancellor together with a falling Stock Market meant that I am only getting the equivalent of £8 a week – not much for all the years of full employment and all the promises!!!

If the Government want people to make provision for their old age they must give them some encouragement to do so – what happened to me has happened to many others.