Civil Service Pension: No contributions made to Spouse's and Childrens Scheme

[elacsaplau]

In relation to a civil servant who joined the civil service in January 1981 - but who has not paid the 1.5% required contributions for the spouses' and children's plan, can anyone help on this person's options please? e.g.
- Can she start making contributions now?
- Can she make backdated contributions?
- Is it worth doing?
- Is there a tax effective way to structure the contributions?

Thanks in advance for any light you can shed!

 

[SadBob]

Hi, it's not that the contributions were not paid, it's the fact that in 1981 she would have made a decision to opt out of the original spouse and children's scheme when it was made available to established female officers in June 1981- i assume she opted not to join. Then in 1984 she would have had an option to join the revised scheme - again I assume she didn't. There's not much she can do now. From June 1981 it was compulsory for female officers to join the original scheme and from Sep 1984 the revised one. If however there's no documentary evidence on her file that she actually opted out of the scheme in 1981 she may have a case to make retrospective payments now. Hard to know if its worth it though depending on personal circumstances. If she's aware/can remember she opted out all those years ago that's it I'm afraid.

Bob