Pensions Question

mockingjay

I entered teaching at 40, having worked in the private sector for 20 years - I got incremental credit of 5 years due to that work experience, which would bring me in line with a teacher entering the profession in 2004. Do my five years incremental credit form part of my years of service? the reason I ask that is because I was deducted the taxes, pension etc from the back payment. Hope someone can help - I tried to find out recently if my other 20 years work would be taken into account to no avail, pension contributions were voluntary in some of them and at that time you could take a refund when you left, my pension payments are messy as I worked with a number of companies! I'd love to know even if I could do some sort of buy-back. Just wondering where my teaching pension stands - or basically who do I contact to find out what age I can retire from teaching at. If I arrange an appointment with Cornmarket will they charge me for the appointment or expect me to buy another product from them? Before anyone points out the obvious, I know I have another 20 years to go until retirement, but if I was to/or allowed to enter into a buy back scheme (if they are still around) I would need to begin now. Thanks.

evolving_doors

Complicated stuff there... all I can say is cornmarket will do the 'sit down and talk about your pension' for free. At the end they talk about other products too.... just nod politely, show a bit of interest and call it a day (Bring a pen and paper as they'll throw figures and scenarios at you).
There's a few other companies I'll pm the name of one.

Kristopherus

My advice would be to stay away from Cornmarket and their ilk. They are only interested in selling you an insurance policy of some sort. Whats most inportant for you is to establish what your prsi contributions were since your first year in employment. You can request that information at https://www.welfare.ie/en/Pages/secure/RequestSIContributionRecord.aspx. As you have entered the public service since 1995, you are paying the A rate of prsi. The more years you have with these contributions, the better your chances of getting a decent Contributory State Pension when the day comes.

Regarding your public service pension,you will benefit from a max of 25 yrs service if you retire at 65. The Superannuation Office in Athlone(??) would be able to advise you of future entitlements and the option of purchasing the service for which you got incremental credit. Just be advised that the cost of purchasing service has risen hugely in the last 10 yrs.

TheDriver

There's a pension modeller on dept website www.education.ie. Be careful of advisors, they regularly leave out key facts e.g.entitlement to supplementary pensions etc

mockingjay

TheDriver wrote: »

There's a pension modeller on dept website www.education.ie. Be careful of advisors, they regularly leave out key facts e.g.entitlement to supplementary pensions etc

Thanks for that The Driver - that pensions modeller is excellent!!! Still a little more work to do but it was very good.