Pension cwps

salmocab

Hi folks looking for a bit of advice, I have a private pension that I’ve had for probably 15 years, in the last few months my job has started paying proper contributions into a scheme which coincidentally is with the people I had my private one with so I froze my private one or whatever the term is this is great as the job match my contributions up to a certain point etc. I’m happy with all this as I’m still only 40 and have a bit of time to get a decent pension for my dotage.
Anyway today I received a statement from the cwps scheme which I’ve paid into in various jobs over the years but stopped paying into it nearly a year ago, it’s only 5 grand and to be honest it would be a great little amount to get now for various reasons, my question is, is there any way I can get that money now? Or does it need to be transferred into my own private pension or indeed just left alone so I can claim my 200 odd euro a year when I retire? Thanks folks

Liam D Ferguson

salmocab wrote: »

Anyway today I received a statement from the cwps scheme which I’ve paid into in various jobs over the years but stopped paying into it nearly a year ago, it’s only 5 grand and to be honest it would be a great little amount to get now for various reasons, my question is, is there any way I can get that money now?

Afraid not. At your age, the only way of accessing money now is early retirement due to serious ill health.

As an aside, I've long held the view that the rates of contribution into the CWPS are far too low, which is why you end up with a fund of only five thousand after several years.

salmocab

Liam D Ferguson wrote: »

Afraid not. At your age, the only way of accessing money now is early retirement due to serious ill health.

As an aside, I've long held the view that the rates of contribution into the CWPS are far too low, which is why you end up with a fund of only five thousand after several years.

Yeah it’s very poor alright although I knew that a long time ago and made my own arrangements, in fact I was surprised it had that much in it, I worked for a small company for years and as I had my own set up he was happy to not bother with it.

Liam D Ferguson

salmocab wrote: »

Yeah it’s very poor alright although I knew that a long time ago and made my own arrangements, in fact I was surprised it had that much in it, I worked for a small company for years and as I had my own set up he was happy to not bother with it.

Fair play to you for being savvy enough to realise that the CWPS contributions were far too small to be meaningful. Unfortunately many people in the construction industry just assume that if they're in the CWPS that they "have a pension" and forget about it, until they get a nasty shock when they retire.

mbradso2003

Liam D Ferguson wrote: »

Fair play to you for being savvy enough to realise that the CWPS contributions were far too small to be meaningful. Unfortunately many people in the construction industry just assume that if they're in the CWPS that they "have a pension" and forget about it, until they get a nasty shock when they retire.

Members can always make AVCs, CWPS is still low cost pension option.

salmocab

Liam D Ferguson wrote: »

Fair play to you for being savvy enough to realise that the CWPS contributions were far too small to be meaningful. Unfortunately many people in the construction industry just assume that if they're in the CWPS that they "have a pension" and forget about it, until they get a nasty shock when they retire.

To be honest lots I’ve worked with over the years don’t even think about it or care. Contributions are terrible and it’s one place I always thought a strong union (I’m a sparks by trade) should be moving on but it’s a badly run union with apethetic members.

mbradso2003

salmocab wrote: »

To be honest lots I’ve worked with over the years don’t even think about it or care. Contributions are terrible and it’s one place I always thought a strong union (I’m a sparks by trade) should be moving on but it’s a badly run union with apethetic members.

I have worked in pension industry for a lot longer than I care to remember while I cannot comment on union the rates are average with a lot of companies I’m involved with offering 3, 4 or 5 matching (including my own employer!)

salmocab

mbradso2003 wrote: »

I have worked in pension industry for a lot longer than I care to remember while I cannot comment on union the rates are average with a lot of companies I’m involved with offering 3, 4 or 5 matching (including my own employer!)

Well the employer actually pays more than the employee but it’s somewhere in the region of 20 euro and 25 euro a week but if you pay avc there is no extra from the employer so for a qualified spark he’s paying maybe 2% and the employer is paying maybe 2.5% but that’s flat per week nothing extra if your working your arse off doing overtime

mbradso2003

salmocab wrote: »

Well the employer actually pays more than the employee but it’s somewhere in the region of 20 euro and 25 euro a week but if you pay avc there is no extra from the employer so for a qualified spark he’s paying maybe 2% and the employer is paying maybe 2.5% but that’s flat per week nothing extra if your working your arse off doing overtime

It seems to be 4.2% employer and 2.8% of average industrial wage with small deductions for sick pay and death in service.

Pension contributions are nearly always based on basic salary, excluding over time and employers do not pay extra extra if employee is making AVCs.

It the average industrial wage that is restricting the contribution amounts of those who earn more.

salmocab

Just as an aside when I worked in Oz the employer had to pay the equivalent of 9% of your wage into a pension, that meant if you worked overtime you got extra in that too. It really racked up quickly and it’s the sort of direction we need to go.

Liam D Ferguson

mbradso2003 wrote: »

It the average industrial wage that is restricting the contribution amounts of those who earn more.

Yes but the decision to link the rates of contribution to the average industrial wage rather than a member's actual wage is one that the CWPS can choose to change. It makes no sense to me.