To be nosey and ask how much you pay into your pension?

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I have only had a pension for the last few years since I started working in the NHS. From the start, I have paid 7.1% of my salary towards my pension every month, and have just had a pay rise, so will be paying in 9.3% from now on. This will be about £200 per month, it was about £140 before (it varies every month as my monthly pay varies depending on how many nights and weekends I do). The contribution rate that the NHS pays was 14.3%, but this has been increased to 20.6% from the 1st of April 2019 (which seems like a big increase to me, but I'm not complaining!)

I'm just curious nosey as to how much other people in different jobs pay towards their pensions, and how much their employers contribute?

Self-employed and since children have grown up have been putting all company pre-tax profits into NEST pension to try to catch up a bit. I will still have a tiny pension, but am used to living frugally, trading money for time.

Tbh I have no idea. AIBU for not understanding my pension?

I'm employed by the Northern Ireland Civil Service, it should be a good pension it's.

I have no clue what percentage I pay in or what they pay in though. All I know is I pay around £110 a month. I don't even know what pension scheme I'm in.

I have asked for information sessions/advice on pensions etc but nobody else seems to understand it either.

I'm private sector, non profit. We put our staff % to 3% before it was obligatory.

The old manager thought we had 'always erred on the side of generosity' - by way of giving fuck all for the first 10 years of the company . We also had minimum statutory holidays and 40h weeks. He even had the gall to jibe about 'any job above crappy bar work' providing a pension - when he hadn't for a full decade!

I'm quite proud of the fact that since shunting him out of the way and taking over I've improved pensions (not wildly, I admit), increased holidays, and reduced standard working hours.

I earn £52k, and am not fussed about sustaining the expected % of that income in retirement (given I'm funneling most of that into savings now), but I am adding £500/month at the moment to make up for years of not paying anything (prioritising a house deposit).

I’ve started mind late but am throwing in £800/month this last few years. I’m 37 so have a LOT of catching up to do but do have decent property, DH and I have a lot of investments that will function as pension too.

To add to that I found my annual pension statement for 2018 it just says:

you will earn alpha pension benefits based on your pensionable earnings for the year multipled by the current retirement factor of 2.32 percent.

It shows I have £2,216.97 in my pension pot but I paid in for 4 and half years at this point.

I'm so confused.

About £1k per month. Employer conts are separate.

Legal min here, wage is ok however not had a rise in 10 years, “we don’t do pay rises”

Also NHS and I pay 9.3% too - was a shock when I first joined but I'll be glad of it one day.

Self-employed as is DH. Don't have much. Paid into an NHS job for 8 years or so and have a (as of now) £5K payout on my death from an old job, but that's it. Would have loved to have stayed in NHS but got bullied out of job and it made me ill. Cut my losses. So much happier and healthier now, though pension is a worry.

DH has no pension as we had to cash it in early to use as deposit on house.

My type of work can be done forever (health allowing) so will carry on doing bits and pieces, state pension (such as it is) and releasing house equity. No kids to leave it to anyway.

Need to sort out life insurance for me and DH though.

Wish I could have a word with my younger self

Depressing reading for all those like me who work in private or voluntary sectors or who are self employed
3% from employer which I match so 6% total - wish I could afford more

I pay 8.5%, public sector can't actually remember what they contribute, but it's high.

It’s worth noting the NHS pension often doesn’t cover ones whole earnings with them. I pay 9.3% and get employer contributions, but they will only pay on half my actual package...

When compared to the better half’s private sector pension arrangement it works out about equivalent as a result.

I have always paid into a pension and now have a few different pots as a result. Current employer is a defined contribution scheme i.e. what you put in is set (5% me, 10% them). Previously have had defined benefit i.e. what you get out is set, normally linked to your salary before you retire. Most places don't offer those DB schemes any more as the payouts tend to be really generous (if you're an employee, costly if you're the employer!) Some people where I work haven't bothered to join the scheme so have been autoenroled into Nest where the contributions are the legal minimum. They are missing out on the death in service benefit though- the company would pay a multiple of your yearly salary to your dependents if you died- which is a good side benefit of the company scheme although I hope I don't have to use it!

These public sector pensions are insane. Why do we never hear about those when strikes etc are on?

Not saying they make up for the shit poor pay of teachers and nurses, but weird that they never get mentioned except portrayed as bad e.g. university superannuation

Derelict - it’s pretty common knowledge that public sector pensions have been better than private for aeons.

Doesn’t stop the haemorrhaging of nurses and teachers out of the NHS and teaching though does it? So clearly people weigh up the pros and cons and vote with their feet.

NHS here. I pay 9. Something %

I pay in 5.5%. I'm not 100% sure what my employer pays but I think its between 15.6% and 20% (lgps)

Dh's employers pay the bare minimum though so he pays 5% and they pay 3%

@TOADfan I’m in pretty much the same position to you. I work for the Civil Service in England (although have only been working for them for a year).

I have no idea (beyond what you’ve just mentioned, regarding the alpha pensions bit and the 2.32% bit) about the exact details of how much I can expect in my pension when I retire.

Could anyone advise, please?

I contribute 5% as does my employer. I have been fortunate that I have been in two defined benefit pensions which are currently frozen but worth quite a bit. Hope to retire at 57.

I pay 6% my employer pays 10% (private sector)
DH is 5% and 5% that’s the maximum they match to

@LimaLemur at least it's not just me.

I have never encountered anything as confusing as the civil service pension.

When I emailed them previously they said that contributions don't count for your pension but covers the payment for the service and my pension is based on my earnings not what I put in?!

I get the legal minimum, which as of a couple days ago is 3% from my employer and 4% from me. I'm currently estimated to have around £80k at retirement which would be fine if state pensions still exist, but I have a horrible feeling they're introducing the workplace pension so that they can phase that out.

I'm upping my contributions as much as I can as soon as I can get hold of the people who provide mine!

I contribute 9%, my employer nearly 20%.

Yes, I work in the public sector and it’s noticeable that pensions here are different to the private sector. I don’t really see it as being that the public sector is unusually good, more that this is what it SHOULD be like for everyone and the private sector is crappily trying to get away with paying too little.

But not all public sector accio, I suppose that's what I mean. I'm public sector and were capped at 5 and 5, much like a lot of private sector

Public sector pensions have got less generous over recent years - not exempt from that trend. Yes they are still better than most private sector schemes but I agree that is recompense for the fact that public sector careers constrain earning potential if often highly qualified people doing difficult jobs.