Member questions

Q. Is membership of the Scheme Compulsory?

A. Under the terms of the Registered Employment Agreement (REA) for the Construction and Electrical industries, all employers covered by this Agreement are legally obliged to have pension, death-in-service and sick pay cover in place for all their manual workers between the age of 20 and 65 years.  CWPS was set up by the industry and it provides a cost effective and secure way for employers to meet these legal obligations.

Q. I’m no longer contributing to the scheme can I get a refund of my pension contributions?

A. No. A refund of contributions is not available to you under the rules of the scheme. Your retirement account can only be used to provide benefits on retirement or earlier death. If you are contributing to another pension scheme you can ask for the value of your retirement account to be transferred to your other pension scheme.

Q. What will happen to my money if I’m no longer contributing to the scheme?

 

A. You can leave your retirement account invested in the scheme until you retire.  If you start contributing to another pension scheme you can ask for the value of your account to be transferred to your new pension Scheme.

Q. Can I continue to pay into the Scheme even if I am no longer working?

A. No, It is only possible to pay contributions to the scheme when you are employed by an employer who is registered in the scheme.

Q. I am now self-employed can I pay into CWPS?

A. Unfortunately not, Revenue rules do not allow self employed people to pay into an occupational pension scheme. However, there is a Construction Industry Retirement Trust Scheme that is designed for self employed construction workers or not self-employed but in non-pensionable employment within the construction industry click here for more information.

Q. My employer is making deductions from my wages for pension. How can I check that he is paying it in to CWPS?

A. You can access your contribution history through the member section of our website. Please click here for details. Alternatively you can contact the scheme on 01 -4977663.

Q. What do I do if there are contributions missing from my record?

A. There could be different reasons why you are missing contributions.

It could be that the employer(s) you worked for were not registered in the scheme.
In this case you should contact the Construction Industry Monitoring Agency who monitor compliance in the Construction Industry or EPACE who do the same for the electrical employers.Contact details are as follows:

CIMA Phone 01 8524100 or email info@monagency.ie
EPACE  Phone 01 4297984 or email info@epace.ie

It could be that your term of employment was not covered under the Registered Employment Agreement (REA)
If you worked with an employer in the Construction/Electrical Industry and there are no contributions paid for your period of employment, the terms of your employment may not have come within the terms of the REA. If you were under 20 years of age or over 65 years of age or your position with the employer was not one of General Operative or Craftsman, the REA did not apply to you and the employer did not have to pay pension contributions to CWPS for you.

The employer you worked for deducted contributions which were not forwarded to CWPS.

If you worked with an employer in the Construction/Electrical Industry and pension contributions were deducted from your salary and these contributions are not shown on your membership record you should let us know. We will follow up on any contributions which were deducted and not paid to the Scheme by our participating employers. However, we will need evidence of deduction of contributions before we can report the matter to the relative governing bodies. You will need to send us the following:

• Your name, address and member number or PPS number
• Name and address of Employer 
• Details of periods of Employment which are not shown on your membership record and for which pension deductions were made. 
• Copies of Payslips for some or all of the periods which clearly shows the name of the employer and pension deductions.