To ask you what annual pension you've built up aged 43 ish?

[Boredbumhead]

Just that really. I chose my career in academia as a lecturer because if the final salary pension scheme, but in 2016 it changed. After 16 years in the profession my pension is so far only 9k per year and a small lump sum. AIBU to be disappointed by this? I feel like I chose the job based on the pension benefits, as well as other aspects about not wanting a corporate job, but now that has all changed. Academia is now like a (badly run) business and the pension scheme has been badly eroded.

How much do you have in your pension pot, aged 40ish?

@NewDOOFUSfor20 I disagree that your employee contribution can’t change. It’s true that they will have scheme rules that set the rate for a fixed period of time - but they can change the rate after that. The NHS 2015 rates were set in 2015 for 4 years, thought they were extended until March 2021. Its perfectly possibly that in March 2021 you could be expected to pay a higher contribution rate for the same benefit level. Of course, your Union would have something to say about that! So I’m not saying it will happen in 2021. But it will change again before you retire, I’m sure of that - certainly the contribution rate, and probably future benefits too. However, what pension you’ve earned already (and NHS schemes are still good) will be protected.

@NewDOOFUSfor20 Your current pension scheme (the one you are actively contributing to) have a legal obligation to send you a pension savings statement each year. Whether the online portal replaces that I’m not sure.

Ways of finding your pension scheme administrator:

• google the scheme name and “administrator”
• are there any documents on your online portal that mention the administrators in them?

Pensions are confusing! It’s not embarrassing to think that at all. My mum has a maths degree so is objectively intelligent but her pension statement confused her!

Not sure if this bit will help, if it confuses you then ignore it, but the way that a final salary scheme pension is calculated is as follows:

Final salary (at the point you left the scheme) x service x accrual rate (this is the rate at which you “earn” pension while you work).

So let’s say you did a stint of two years in one final salary scheme with an accrual rate of 60ths and when you left you were on £30k salary.

Your pension earned from those two years is calculated as:
2 years x £30k x 1/60 = £1k a year at the point you left.

That £1k would then get inflationary increases until you take it as a pension, just to maintain the purchasing power of it.

It is likely that the breakdowns for each scheme that you can see is those amounts.

@NewDOOFUSfor20 your scheme year ends 31st May, and according to NHS pension department website, your annual statement is available via online portal (the TRS you mentioned) in mid August. I expect the helpline I linked you too gets busy then

So this would be a good time to log in and check if you definitely only see 2017?

Correction, it’s end March, your scheme year - end of May is an administrative deadline in the process of statements. But it’s correct about mid August for the update.

@TimeToParty there is no legal requirement for annual statements for DB pension - paper or online. It’s very common for schemes to do them though - for NHS I think it’s online only. The annual statement legal requirement is for DC pensions.

@MatildaTheCat no, a private pension (DC) does not have illness benefits. The OP’s USS DB scheme does - I mentioned it in my first reply where I included it in my list of reasons why OP is unreasonable

USS is a private pension scheme!

You’re right @ThereIsNoSuchThingAsRoadTax thanks for the correction! USS is indeed privately vs publicly funded. Apologies for the slip - I had PERSONAL pension (DC) in my mind.

Around £2k!
Not sure what I can do at nearly 50 to up it. I earn just over £18k full time. I current put 20% away every month for pension with no room to increase that.

I’m nearly 43 and been paying into a pension since I was 18.

One is worth about £12k a year (final salary preserved benefits that can be drawn down at 60). I have a SIPP with about £50k in it, a LISA that will have the max allowed in it (paying out around £50k at 60). My current pension is currently worth about £2k per year after 3 years but can’t be drawn before 67 without penalties.

@NewDOOFUSfor20 the worked example from @TimeToParty is really helpful.

If you want to know the actual rate* for your particular pension, as the NHS is so big a lot of their own guides are online for all to see.

When you were in the 1995 scheme, your accrual rate was 1/80. So for every full year you worked, you would get 1/80th of your final salary. Just as explained above, that figure will be increased by a number similar to inflation - there is a very specific calculation already agreed on what that should be, they don’t make it up as they go along

In your 2015 scheme, your actual rate was actually really improved. To offset some of the things that changed negatively. So now, your accrual rate is 1/54, so you get 1/54th of your “CARE” (career average related earnings) for every year you’ve worked. In your mind, it’s best to just imagine these are two completely separate pensions - and they’re most likely listed on your statement separately. But they’ll get paid together in the end.

For CARE, this is a bit simplified, but say you earned £30K in 2015-2016, and then had a promotion and earned £36K in 2017-2018. Your average salary would be £33K.

So, you “accrued” 4 years:
1/54th of £33K is £611 give or take the pennies.
Multiply that by your 4 years of service:
4 x £611 = £1644.
So when you retire (at age 65, according to 2015 scheme rules I think) you’d get £1644 per year - for those contributions from 2015-2018.

Of course, you’d also get whatever you accrued in the 1995 scheme, and more from the 2015 scheme after my hypothetical 2018.

It’s worth getting to grips with your statement... NHS pension is very good and I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised and reassured if you’ve contributed for 19 years!

I feel I should add a big disclaimer though: I’m just a randomer on the Internet, and although I have a very good understanding of my own scheme, and pretty comfortable with pension concepts in general, the specifics I’m posting about the NHS schemes are based on some general knowledge (friends in NHS!) and googling info such as actual rates - though I’m only going off NHS own publications. So you do need to talk to your own pension department! But hopefully it helps you in preparing to do that

@Ellisandra your pensions knowledge is extremely good! I thought you worked in pensions!

I thought that for active members there is a legal requirement for a statement? Or is that just for those with tax issues maybe?

Either way, if in doubt anyone can request one from their administrator or look online if they have an online portal.

I realise that this is something of a 'how long is a piece of string' question but what do people think a reasonable income to aim for in retirement is? Assuming that you have no depdendents and have paid off your mortgage so have no mortgage or rent (I appreciate this is not true for many people) then that should take some of the variability out. I appreciate it's impossible to predict the future but I find it really difficult to set a goal without a reasonable idea of what I might need.

I saw this research www.retirementlivingstandards.org.uk which looks pretty helpful. If the OP got the full state pension then she'd already be approaching the 'moderate' standard of living for a single person on that research, which isn't bad given she has 25 years left to go. With a couple where each had the same as the OP they'd not be too far off the 'comfortable' part.

I’m aiming for 30k pension a year to live on and I think that will be comfortable and allow for travel/holidays. Will be mortgage free.

34 and due to multiple maternity leaves and some other time out of work I have near to no pension

@Tess83, there is a long standing thread on MSE about how much you need - it's in the Pensions bit of the Forum. It's really interesting. Without any mortgage payments, dh and I would be happy on 4K per month. I would want in addition to this, £30k cash to replace white goods, car etc. As we get very old, it's likely we won't spend that per month so it will go into savings/spend on children.

That's really helpful Lightsabre - do you have a link for the MSE thread? I will look it up. That 4k (assuming post tax) puts you almost exactly at the comfortable point for a couple in that research.

The other tricky thing is planning for different plausible scenarios. The amount you need to maintain a reasonable standard is so much more if you are single and living alone. We're fortunate to have decent bereavement benefits but if we were to divorce we'd both be so much worse off. Obviously I hope that we'll be happy and healthy together for a long life but you only need to look at the relationship boards and the people who end up unexpectedly single later in life to realise it's probably not best to reply on that hope!

@Tess83 I’m on my second marriage, and all my pension planning discounts my husband entirely! If he’s alive and we’re still together - bonus! (emotionally was well as financially) but I literally do not even have his assets on my retirement planning spreadsheet.

I looked up my projections, and it’s €15k pa plus €12k state pension, so €27k.
Thinking about it logically I pay €1k per month pension contribution and €1k per month mortgage. These will be gone so it looks okay to me.

I'm 43. I have £400k in so far. Aiming for £1m by the time I'm 63, which I'm led to believe should be £50k pa. That obviously makes me very lucky, but actually my OHs pension is worth the same despite them earning a quarter of what I do, because their public sector employer has been contributing, whereas mine is solely self funded.

How much you need is really tricky. I hope that we’ll have a period of maybe 10 years where we can enjoy travel (if it’s still possible!) and feel like we can really make the most of our free time. After that (judging by our parents) things are likely to slow down and costs decrease a lot, but we’ll still want to be in a position to help out the kids.

It’s all such a gamble as we’re stashing money we could use now, but we have to hope that we’ll live long enough to benefit from being ants rather than grasshoppers!

About £10k I think. I'm 41. My DH worked for Royal Mail for 10 years and started drawing down his pension at 60. He got £2.5k per year - i now get a widow's pension of £1250 per year, which really infuriates me. He only had one year of drawing his pension before he died yet i am expected to manage on half of what he built up.

That’s really sad for you to lose your husband at any age, but how additionally sad for him not to have enjoyed much retirement - I’m sorry.

That is the way DB pensions work though... they can only afford to pay the people who lives beyond average life expectancy, by knowing that some won’t live beyond it 😕 On an individual level it is a huge shame - but it’s not unfair. My second husband is in a similar position with his first wife’s pension - though she never drew a penny of it, as she was your age when she died. Far from being infuriated that he gets less than her full pension, he sees it as a great benefit that he gets a reduced pension that he never contributed to at all.

I wouldn't be too worried if I were you - I'm an earlier generation, and had supposedly good pension in the private sector. It was supposed to result in something like 80% final salary so should have been around 40k. After company going under with not enough in the pension fund, I ended up with £12k per annum. I feel lucky to have anything.

I'd completely forgotten about life insurance/in service benefits attach to a DB scheme. If you're in one, check out the benefits and don't take them for granted. The scheme I was in (now retired) offered excellent death in service and ill health retirement benefits. Obviously no one like to think they will ever need them but be aware of their value.

I’m also in academia and have about 16 years service and I’ve built up 12k annual pension. I’m desperate to get out but unsure what else to do. My DH earns close to three times my SL salary and he NEVER does any work at home. I, on the other hand, work every evening and weekend. The workload is just unbearable.