Nope, OH certainly doesn’t.
Yes, I did. Opted out of SERPS at the first opportunity in 1988. My SERPS pension did quite well. When I consolidated my three pensions in 2018, the SERPS one was worth about 40% of the total. The SERPS pension proportion of my current consolidated pension is earning me about 35% of the state pension, so for me it was definitely worth it.
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@Corona I also opted out of SERPS, in early 90s. The Contracted out fund that my employer arranged (with L&G) has - very helpfully - quintupled in value from late 90s, I’ve taken a lump sum recently from it, which would have been a) impossible if the funds had been included in the State Pension scheme and b) no funds would have been accessible for me before 2030.
This whole thread has been educational for me, including knowledge about access to the Pensions Forecast. I appear to be eligible to join the £185pw ‘club’.
I can second that.
Like you was opted out for a few years at a similar time with Legal & General and took a very nice tax free lump sum before moving to France. Joined the fully paid up OAP club 2 years ago.
Don’t believe all you read!
With regard to qualifying years and reaching that threshold would I be right in thinking that those who take the University route in their late teens and early 20’s automatically become late starters in building up their year bank.
Part time student work would have probably not paid enough to qualify for NI contributions whereas those who entered the world of work at 16 had already amassed 5 or as much as 10 qualifying years by the time their peers had left university and started work.
There is also a twist in your qualifying year calculation depending when you were born. I started work in the summer of 1970 aged 16 however as I turned 16 in March of that year my birthday fell in the 1969/70 tax year so I already had 1 qualifying year before I started work.
L&G are a pretty good life company, not all of them are/were as many have gone. Two stuck in my mind who’s internal charging structure favoured the life company, Abbey life and Allied Dunbar being two I remembered. Have to look into that.
There was an ocassion with Abbey life where a directors pension scheme (very favourable investment terms) if the director died before the date of the pension maturity, the whole pot went to the said life company and not to the deceased’s estate.
You’re right about University students being late in building up state pension entitlements , at least in my case. I left University at 22, to start full time work, whereas you report that you had already built up 6 years of contributions by that point, as you started work at 16. It meant I had to wait until 52 before racking up 30 years worth of NI contributions, and 57 before hitting the full 35 years needed. At that point, I handed in my notice, probably to the relief of my employer. I took the very handy tax free lump sum from my contracted out L&G scheme (similar to you!) and then moved to France last year.
I can’t help wondering in passing if there are any UK/French tax circumstances in which it wouldn’t make sense to take a tax free lump sum before moving to become French resident. Obviously there are a myriad investment and other personal financial reasons to factor in…
I can’t think of any… IMO best to take advantage of the UK tax free allowances before taking up residency in France.
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I now have to top up to 39 years to compensate for the contracted out years, and the ones where only partial year employment. And that will get me to full pension, but the final year top up only gains 72p a week extra so I may well not bother as that would be a 20 year pay-back!
For anyone reading this thread and wanting to make sure they are in the best place re UK pensions:
First get your pension forecast from
https://www.tax.service.gov.uk/check-your-state-pension/account
Helpline 0800 731 0181
Textphone 0800 731 0176
Monday to Friday: 8:00am to 6:00pm
Then I’ve found it better to do it on the phone. I started the process by letter and it took three months to get a reply each time.
If you want to top up missed years you then have to get a quote for the best years
DWP overseas pensions is 0044 191 218 7777
And then HMRC NI queries us 0044 (0) 300 200 3500 .
For future years you can get a direct debit form.
Last time I tried to use the link (Government gateway) it didn’t work as they couldnt verify my identity as living in france (lack of uk credit check/electoral roll). I’ll call them early next year as will be claiming mine in about a year. I’ve only got 25 or 26 qualifying years so not expecting anything life changing 
but it might just make the difference of not having to choose between eating or heating 
You may be pleasantly surprised…
Gateway number and password gets me in?
I ring the overseas pensions office at Wolverhampton and they are very helpful. You maybe surprised at what 20+ years pays out!
HMRC normally carry out a 2FA via phone as well.
Ok thats new. I dont give HMRC my mobile number.
It is (or was) part of the process in setting up a Government gateway account.
Figures are on a scrap of paper, but roughly costing me £4k to bump up by 6 years. Which gets me an extra £25 or so a week. Doesn’t sound much but means if I can live an extra 6 or 7 years I’ll be in profit. And of pensions are currently index linked, so better than most savings. Do your sums!
If you were entitled to a state pension before April 2016 then they only 30 qualifying years are needed. If you date of entitlement is after April 2016 then 35 years are needed regardless of whether you had 30 years before April 2016. Even people who qualify for the new basic pension will have it reduced for any years they were contracted out.just as they would under the old basic pension.
During contracted out years you were paying lower rate of NI. Those years still count towards your 30/35 Basic years, it is any Additional Pension that’s affected as being contracted out you are paying into a private pension rather than the state Additional Pension.
Well mine didn’t. I have 17 years without full contributions, despite working and paying NI for 16 of them. Once I top up I will have 39 years listed, which will nearly get me the full pension (not quite).