Is anyone clever with pensions, especially NHS ones?

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I'm trying to work out how much my pension is worth as part of my package, should I ever choose to leave the NHS.

I'm B7, part time, so I pay in about 6.8%. My understanding is the NHS pay in 23%, so roughly 30% of my salary going in the pot. But as it's a defined benefits pension (I'm 2015 scale) does it really matter what goes in, that doesn't really impact what comes out does it?

I'm trying to work out what I'd need to save in another pension scheme to match the NHS. I have contacted pensions but there's a 6 week wait for a reply apparently. I've got a job offer in the private sector on the table, but the pension bit is confusing me.

If anyone got this far and understands my question thank you, any advice appreciated.

@RagzRebooted as of October we get deducted at the actual earnings, not FTE. Some people have lost out, some have won. The bands of contributions all changed a bit in Oct.
Thank you all for your help and advice, I feel quite embarrassed at my poor grasp of it all, but its never too late to learn I guess.

Mine isn't on my TRS I've been trying g for months to get it sorted. So annoying.

Have a look at the cost of annuities.

For example, pick an annual amount you would like to see as your pension and then work out what size 'pot' you would need in a private pension to receive that amount.

I'm afraid it's terrifying.

What your employer is paying is irrelevant really since they pay whatever it takes to ensure the benefits you have built up are paid to you.

You really need a professional like an actuary to calculate this for you.

With private sector pensions these are typically pots of money which can then be used for retirement income such as an annuity.

A quick Google shows that currently a pot of £100,000 will buy an income of £7,500 for a 65 year old. This assumes there are no guarantees, no increases to the pension and no spouses pension paid.

As the NHS has guarantees, increases and provides for a spouses pension a similar annuity will pay around £4,000 using a pension pot of £100,000.

Your NHS pension is currently giving you £888pa. So will take 4-5 years to get to the £4,000pa or a pot of £100,000. So that's £20k-25k per year you need to go into your pension pot.

This is all very rough as there are other things you need to take into account such as any death in service benefits the NHS has which your new company may not. If you have a pot of money then the investment risk is all yours so if it goes down it's up to you to manage that. The annuity rates may change so what £100,000 buys you today might not be enough when it comes to retirement (or it might be more!)

Thanks, I had totally missed that. Does this mean I'm earning the same amount of pension but paying less for it?
I'm rubbish at this stuff too!

Just looked it up, I'm still just in the 9.8% contribution band, even based on my part time hours. But I'm 85% of WTE.
Does seem like the change is an improvement in fairness as far as I can see.

How do you do this? I don't really understand.
I think I worked out my NHS pension but I'm probably miles off. If I earn 30k a year and work for 30 years, I would accrue 30, 000/54x30? So £16,666 a year pension? Is that right? It costs me £3k a year in contributions.

Yes that’s right @RagzRebooted

Have a look to see what pension pot you’d need in a defined contribution scheme to give a guaranteed annual income of £16.6k and you’ll fall off your chair!

The way it's valued for tax purposes gives you an approximate guide: for tax purposes it's multiplied by 20 to give the in year tax benefit of the DB scheme.

So on 48k you'd need to add about 17.5k of pension value.

I thought this, I'm a work PT at a band 4 and I pay more % in pension.

You should be able to look up your total reward statement on ESR.

I tried but I couldn't work out how to find that information. I do know it would be more than I could ever hope to afford to pay into though!

Awake in the night and realised you'll then want to take your personal contribution off that number.

So if it currently costs you £4k or whatever it would bring the additional value to you don't to about £13k.

Do you have children and receive child benefit for them? A salary of 48k v 60k will move from receiving it to repaying it all/not receiving it.