Acer perhaps you have bank statements going back to 1997 /1998, or perhaps you could order them. This would show you payments from DES.
I have found you need to triple check every figure they send you as when I retired they had multiple things wrong including trying to charge me superannuation that I had already paid.
@Meath Lady no afraid not, was Ulster Bank back then I'd say. But I will post now how I did find out more info:
FB post 1 responding to someone who wasn't sure of pension record held by DES.
Some useful things that I did:
1. Typed up the pension service once received (after 2 years) onto excel or Google sheets. Check if any work anywhere missing (ETB, primary schools, national schools). If yes, there is a process to go through to get that sorted. I had 1 full year in a school missing, also had 6 weeks in a primary school included that I had forgotten, and ETB and Private School missing. Also time with VSO / APSO.
2. Ring DES and ask for a employment record. This is weird as then you get the exact dates of work.. but also there can still be mistakes. (I wish I had done this first.. as DES have info, it is so weird that pensions do not). You can ring PENSIONS (2 to 5pm) seems to work sometimes.
3. Magic Trick - Ring REVENUE (2 to 5pm ). They were super helpful!! Like amazing!!! I'm been serious. The lady was jumping through hoops to help me. Explain your situation and that you need to figure out Pension, but that the DES do not have accurate records and it takes years for a response with missing service etc.
Request an archive search of your employment record. This means someone will go to paper files. You will then get
1. Where you worked up to early 2000s.
2. What contract you were on or more so WHO PAID. This was super valuable as my early years (1997 to 2000) were listed as paid by *Board of Management, Private School, DES Primary School*.
These years are when
*I may not have paid pension*.
I only found this out Friday.
To give example:
I worked Dec 12 1999 to June 2000 in ETB school in Dublin.
To get this time moved over to DES Pension, I need to pay €407 to DES accountant. I have now set the ball rolling on what else I need to pay like this. It isn't clear, and I have burnt my salary slips from that time.
4. You may have a few different pensions.
I found out that I have 4 year 188 days of a Old Entrant/Pre 2004 pension) and the rest is New Entrant/Post 2004, as I just found out I was moved pensions.
This is called
Preserved Pension.
There is another type of pension called a
SPLIT pension for those who may have paid PRSI contributions
before 1995. That may be you...
You need to figure out if you were out of the system more that 26 weeks and when you returned as that will be the pension you are on now. The other pensions still exist (have value) so don't panic like I did.
Finally .. I have just spend a huge chunk of time figuring this out. If you know someone good at excel or Google sheets you can set it up so you know:
1.
The lump sum
2. The
Contributory pension you would get per annum based on the
3.
Age who are.. so you can then see 58, 59, 60, 61 years etc.
4.
Salary increment that you hit at each age and the gross income amount at that increment.
Notional Service Payment may be possible. There are pros and cons. It is NOT the case that AVC's are always better. AVC have great tax benefits, but some funds don't perform great. Likewise NSP can be expensive, but if you could live a long time, and if you do not have dependents it could be a good choice. You fill paperwork for revenue and they do the figures so you can decide.
It didn't make sense to me until Friday when I did enough work that my brain figured it out.
POST 2: (although, I think I am missing info .. so not 100%)
Pension Lump Sum =
Final Gross Salary x 1.5 (150% )
Allowances must be help for 3 years.
Pension Amount =
(Years and Days of service) As a decimal 37 years 167 days = 37.5
So 37.5 x final salary ÷ 80