In my last proper job I became a trustee of the pension scheme and thought it my duty to point out to people who weren't in it that ithe scheme was free money and they should join the DC section so if they put 5% in the company would pay 10%.
I was chastened when a chap who was 62, with 3 year to go, told me he would end up worse off by joining. He would lose about practically all of any pension he received off his pension credit so paying the 5% would make him worse off. I worked it all out afterwards and he was right. In fact a person in his position could only have made himself better off in retirement with a pot of about £100,000 or more.
He only had state pension and lived in rented. IIRC he would get housing benefit and pension credit. You could say he was planning for retirement.
Of course the answer is to start well before 62.
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