Can anyone explain my NHS pension figures? I just don’t understand it.

[WantingToEducate]

Hi all,

I have recently posted about me leaving my NHS job and trying to find out what happens with my pension.

I have since been in touch with my Trust’s Pension department who have sent me an 8 page document about all the NHS jobs I’ve had over the last 17 years and there are numbers everywhere and I just don’t understand it.

I have attached a page that has really confused me….

1. What are pensionable earnings?

2. Why are my pensionable earnings decreasing even though my salary has been increasing?

3. What are the “pension earned” amounts ? Where have those numbers been plucked from?

About £100 a month would come out my
pay packet each month to contribute to my pension, so why are the figures only around the £400 mark? Especially as the NHS pays 14% of our monthly pay into the pension too.

I’m just so confused.

I’ve already left the Trust so I can’t access any of my pay slips (they are sent to us electronically) so I have no way of calculating exactly what my annual pension contributions were….although I know they were definitely more than £400!

I’m feeling so stressed 😢

And what on earth is revaluation?!

@WantingToEducate @JenniferBarkley posted about 20 minutes ago and explained how your pension works, in what I think is the clearest explanation on this thread.

You're not adding amounts to your own private pension savings account. You are buying into a scheme each year. The Pension Earned column in your first screenshot shows how much pension you have bought for each year you paid in. If you add up all your Pension Earned amounts you will have the total amount you've bought into. That's from 2015. As I think someone else said, prior to that the NHS used a different scheme. You will need to contact the centra NHS Pensions people to find your whole career overview.

So I guess my first starting pointing is finding out what my “pension earned” amounts are for all the years I worked prior to 2015.

I thought the NHS pension department I contacted at the Trust I work in would be able to provide me with that kind of information since I started working in the NHS, not just the period of when I have worked in this Trust.

Can I just give a genuine thank you to everyone who has helped explain this to me - I really appreciate it. Plus, now I’m reading it all after having had some sleep, it’s made me understand things much clearer.

That's great OP.

It's a really generous pension - when you hear people talking about gold plated pensions, that's what you have. It's a massive asset (and would figure significantly in a divorce, for example). The disadvantage is that (and I'm guessing this isn't news to you ) because the NHS is just so big the structure is likely a bit complicated with lots of different sections so it's difficult for us to give you exact figures.

The NHS does have a single pension scheme accessible to individual employees, it’s a portal called my NHS pension, alternatively there’s one linked to your direct employer called total rewards scheme, both effectively the same thing just different ways to access, it shows the current value of pension and a one year projection from memory, if the OP accessed that it would clearly show what the pension is worth, do have to apply to access first one or still be employed for second

Pensionable earnings is the amount of your salary that qualifies for your pension. If your salary hasn’t changed my guess would be that there is a Lower Earnings Limit (LEL) threshold applied so only everything above this level is pensionable salary or there may be a cap so only everything below this level is pensionable. The definition of Pensionable Salary is scheme specific and defined in the scheme rules - I am not sure of the exact details of the NHS scheme. Given it’s such a large scheme you may be able to google the answer.

Revaluation is what happens to your pension each year to ensure it is not eroded by inflation. It needs to be a minimum of at least CPI capped at 5%.

So your pension accrued each year e.g. £400 will be increased each year so that at retirement it’s value has not been eroded by inflation as much if the revaluation has not been applied.

My understanding is the NHS a career average scheme, so each year you work you will accrue more pension.

For example the c. £400 you accrued most recently represents a pension of £400 paid from retirement date to the date you for. So if you live for 15 years in retirement that’s 15 x £400 worth of pension so I promise you you are getting your money’s worth by paying in around £100 a month :)

Hopefully I’ve explained that ok and not too confusing.

No. That's just what you contributed. Look on another TRS tab for the amounts you'll get in pension.

I’ve been on to my total Awards Statement and found information from Both the 1995 Scheme and the 2015 scheme.

I have attached the screenshots which seem to be the most applicable?

There was information about my contributions and the NHS contributions but I have overlooked them now that I’ve learned the contributions don’t have any relation to what my pension will actually be 😂

It is good you are trying to understand pensions and you have plenty of time to sort them out given you have 20 years or more probably until you can draw on them.

I would advise anyone who has worked and left jobs in the past to write to the HR departments if they don't have pension information. My sister thought an old scheme where she worked for a few years at the very start of her working life was not worth bothering about. Eventually she got details and will be getting £7k a year when she is 63 in a few years time.

Ok, so massive asterisk on this in that I'm not familiar with your scheme, but I would interpret that as your pension being £3350 + £4121 = £7471 per annum in today's money. You will also get a lump sum of £10k on retirement.

Only jobs where you were paying into the NHS pension scheme will count towards your NHS pension. Your agency work won't be taken into account. The dental nurse role you'd have to look at an old payslip to check, or at a pension estimate.

My advice would be to spend some time getting to grips with your pension. There's a pdf you can download here:
https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/member-hub/membership-nhs-pension-scheme

Also, reading the responses on this thread (from people's who understands the NHS schemes) to get an understanding of how your NHS pension is calculated. My NHS pension was wrongly calculated to the time of thousands a year (complex situation to do with protection). I pointed the error out and was told I was wrong. It was only after submitting a formal complaint that they agreed, and my pension was corrected, so it's really important to understand how your pension works.

If you want more information, you can call NHSBA https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/member-hub/contact-nhs-pensions-members

That said, I've found that if trusts have a pensions team, they are often really helpful and can explain things clearly. You could contact them team at your last trust and arrange an appointment with them maybe

I have contacted my Trust’s Pension Department and they have also said that all the Bank Shifts I’ve done over the last 7 years will also contribute towards my pension…..and I have worked a lot of Bank shifts 😂

I’ve asked him if he go and look at all my figures and tell me what my annual pension will be based on my earnings over the last 17 years. I have explained that I plan to leave the NHS once my resignation period is over in 3 weeks.

Good that you’ve looked and no, what you pay-in has no resemblance to what you get, you pay about 10% yourself depending on salary, NHS pensions, along with most public sector don’t work in the same way as private sector pensions, you receive a defined amount which is index linked each month and is a % of your pay dependent on salary and length of service, all members have now moved to the 2015 scheme and benefits built up in the 1995 scheme are frozen but still paid as if from 95 scheme. If this was the daily Mail rather than mumsnet, que multiple comments re gold plated pensions etc

You’re wrong.

That’s an example of the pension payout based on one year of contributions. The contribution would have been more like £1200

In a defined benefit pension such as the NHS, the percentage or amount that the employer and employee contribute is completely meaningless. It’s arbitrary. I really wish people who have a DB pension would understand this. And people who have a DC pension too, for that matter!

What are DB and DC pensions?

Just read this , you really need to question this as I’m fairly certain bank shifts over and above your normal shifts are not pensionable, my wife works full time in nhs and also bank and she 100% does not pay pension contributions on her bank shifts, nor are they counted towards her final pension, I believe it’s different if you only work on the bank

Defined benefit and defined contribution.

Most private pensions are the latter.

Defined benefit and defined contribution.

NHS, police, firefighters, teachers, local government etc all have DB pensions, which really are fantastic value.

The majority of the private sector have DC.

This is what was said in the email I was sent….

Gosh I really need to look at my old civil service pension after reading this!

Fairly unusual I think, but don’t quote me, I know my wife and her colleagues who do the same don’t, easy way to check, look at a bank pay slip, if you paid pension, it counts towards it

I can’t access those as I’m no longer at the Trust and all the pay slip are on the intranet.

I’m assuming that is what the gentleman from the Pensions department did though 🤷‍♀️

I pay superannuation on bank wages as my main NHS post is 30 hours.