I thought I had a Pension, now the company say I havent.

Hi, I've just a bombshell dropped on me in work regarding my pension and I've no idea what to do now.

I started working for a belfast based company nearly 3yrs ago. Now they provided a pension scheme that I joined (a uk one). I can remember signing forms and personally talking to liason with the company that was providing the service. About 4 months after I joined, the company got bought out by a Scottish firm.

As far as I was aware my pension was transfered and everything should have been as normal. I was told nothing to the contrary. Two months ago I sent a mail to the HR department asking about it. I recieve a reply back today telling me that I have no pension that they are aware of and one hasn't been setup to facilitate the irish market yet. (there is one other employee as well as myself based down here).

I'm nearly 30 and have no pension. I'm devestated to hear this news. What do I do when I calm down?

Re: Pension Trouble With Work

Hi chimpychompy,

Im sorry to hear of your difficulty.

You should contact:
Irish Pensions Board: 1890 65 65 65. I have found them very helpful in the past.

If you think your statutory rights as an employee have been infringed it might be helpfull to contact DETE.
Department of Enterprise and Employment

Are you a member of a trade union? Even if you are not it can do no harm to contact a union and ask for advice.

Im assuming that your scheme is a Defined Contribution Scheme with matched contributions from your employer, is this correct? Do you have any payslips which would show payroll deductions? Have you got any copies of the documentation you signed when you joined the company? Have you got a copy of your employment contract? Did you get an annual pensions statement from your old employer ?

Also under the trasnfer of undertakings leglislation in Ireland TUPE (and the UK i think) your existing terms and conditions must be maintained by the new owner.

What is the financial situation of the new company. Is it large and well established?

ajapale

Hi ajapale, thanks for your prompt response. Looking back over my pay cheques I never saw the deduction and just automatically presumed it was being taken care of (yes, the sting of nievety does indeed hurt!).

I don't have any pay cheques from the company I worked for that got bought out. Altough a few of the directors from that company are still there. I also have never recieved any document from the company that were supposed to be looking after the pension. Bar some introduction documents that I've long since lost.

The scheme I was involved in with the old company was a shared one, we both gave 4% as far as I'm aware. The scottish company I work for do the same with their uk employees but can't for some reason yet with irish employees, I've been told.

I'm going to get a copy of my contract tommorrow and organise a meeting with one of the directors on wednesday. I will also call the Irish pensions board. I'm not a member of a trade union either unfortunately.

Bar the fact I've been utterly stupid myself, do you think I'm in a position to put pressure on my employeer not just to back date the companys x% for the last few years, but also to pay my x% too?

A Chara,


Don,t be too hard on yourself, most people in Ireland ( myself included) are confused about company contrib / non-contrib pensions.


Do you know the company that hosted the pension scheme for you, contact them for any data they have relating to you, have it forwarded on.

Was the pension scheme specified in TERMS CONDITIONS of your contract from previous employer ??


What happened to other employees of your old company ??

If company was taken over, you should have been transferred, or got bought out of the scheme .....

Also, contact Free Legal Advise Centre, or a solicitor regarding this situation.

Are you saying that you have no payslips and no documentary evidence of the pension from the company in question? Do you mean that they never issued these or that you mislaid them? Were pension contributions deducted from salary and, if so, where did these go to and where are they now?

Thanks for the replies everyone. I'm going to scour the place looking for that introduction documentation for that pension that was organised in my last company. As its the only documentation I ever got from them. I'll also be looking at my contract today and having a meeting with one of the directors (of the old company) in the next day or two. I spoke to another employee from that old company yesterday and his pension is still in tact! I'll keep you's updated ! I'm still fuming! At myself more so than anything else ...

Just thought I'd update this one.

I've had a meeting with MD of the legacy company about the situation and apparently when I went to sign up for the origonal pension they twigged they couldnt set it up because I lived in ROI. Anyway they completly forgot to tell me this little fact, then company got bought ... and well the rest is history.

Anyway, it looks like they are going to offer to pay x% for the last 3yrs provided I match it. *sigh* I'm about to buy a house, great timing, so it looks like I'm pension-less after all.

I took the opportunity to ask for a pay increase too. I got told to go and This post will be deleted if not edited to remove bad language .... lovely !

My legal rights in this situation?

Hi there,

A few months ago I made a post regarding my employer and the fact that they had not being providing a pension for me over my 3yrs of employment, when I truely believed they were.

When I brought this up with them, to make amends they offered to put into the scheme a back dated lump sum upto the maximum contributable amount, on provision that I matched it.

Now, basically I can't afford the 5/6k or whatever it is as I'm about to buy a house. As it turns out I have decided to leave the company due many other areas of dissatisfaction I have with them.

Where do I stand now? Can they legally refuse to put in their half of my pension if I don't contribute my half? I am guilty of making a stupid mistake by not realising I wasn't paying into a pension, but are they not guilty of professional negligance and infact breaking the law by not provding a pension for me? Do I need to seek legal advice on this or am I screwed?

Thanks in advance!

I don't think that you ever clearly addressed the questions about documentary evidence of the pension being a benefit of the employment above. Maybe you could do so now? For example, what does your contract of employment say about pension benefits? Did you ever contact the DETE Employment Rights Section (and/or maybe the Pensions Board) as suggested earlier?

I have requested a copy of my contract but I haven't recieved it, neither have I contacted either of those two sites. I will do all this before I waste anyone elses time. I am 99.9% sure that my contract states that a pension is included in my package. Regardless though is it not a legal requirement to provde one these days?

Do you mean that you mislaid the original copy of the contract given to you when you started work there?

Along with virtually every other piece of paper that comes my way from credit card bills to pay slips. I don't do myself any favours, do I?

chimpychompy said:

Regardless though is it not a legal requirement to provde one these days?

Click to expand...

I believe the situation these days is that if your company does not provide a pension scheme then they are obliged to provide you with access to a PRSA but they do not have to contribute to it themselves.

With regard to their offer to match your contibutions bear in mind that the real cost to you may only be 50% of your contributions if you are a higher rate taxpayer as you get tax relief on pension payments, although there will be cashflow implications as you will have to pay the lump sum now and will get the tax relief later.

Another possibility might be to try and negotiate a settlement, if they are offering 5/6K against a matched contribution maybe try and get them to give you a lower lump sum without any matching. Give them the impression that if they don't settle you can raise the money to match their contribution but would rather use if for something else if a compromise can be reached. If they pay you the lump sum in cash there may be tax implications but you could always pay this money as an AVC to a new scheme if provided by your new employer or into a PRSA mitigating the tax liablility.

If at all possible try and sort something out unless your cashflow situation is so tight that you have no room for manoeuvre, you could be losing out on a lot of free money (if they pay 5K, you pay 5K and you get full tax relief at 42%+PRSI on your 5K contribution you would have 10K pension at a net cost to you of a little over 2.5K).