Part-time NHS pension

[RoséProsecco]

I've been in the NHS pension scheme since 1994, and was full time from them until I had my first baby at the end of 2008.

I was part-time from returning to maternity leave in 2010, until 2016) at 2.5 days, then increased to 4 days & since 2020 have been 4.5 days.

I'm hoping to retire at 60 & can pay extra in between now & then.

How will my part-time service affect my pension?

You'll have accrued part years rather than full years once you went part time so your total years of service which are used to calculate your pension will be less.

Not sure, but if my experience helps: Full time from 1977 to 1983. Then a break outside NHS.
Then 1987 to 1991 full time with a 5 month mat leave.
Then 1991 to 2000 full time.
Then 2000 to 2015 at 35 hours a week,
Then 2015 to 2020 at 22 hours a week.

Early retirement in 2020 due to bullying and breakdown of mental health.

Coming out with £850 a month.

I'm going to say it's way too complicated for anyone here to tell you.

The 2008 pension scheme was final salary I think, the 2015 is career average earnings. You should download your Total Reward Statement as this will give you an idea of the current payout value of each part of the pension.

No one on here can advise, and the pension will also be related to your income not just the days and years worked.

That's interesting @thenightsky - you have a lot of service there.

Do you mind me asking what band you were?

I'm 51 & can't see myself lasting until I am 60 - I think my physical/mental health will give out before then.

@HazelWicker - thanks -yes you're correct about the 1995/2015 schemes. I think I can decide about what I do, based on the McLeod judgement- reckon the old scheme will be better.

I've tried logging on to see my statements but they are out of date & I've had a letter saying they will write to update.

I'm in the Scottish scheme so perhaps slightly different from England.

The scheme won't particularly matter - by cutting your hours you'll have cut the pension you accrued that year by the same proportion. So, if you worked 50pc hours, you'll have accrued half a year rather than a full year.

You're best to just get your own statement as that will give you the actual amounts which none of us can give you.

This makes me worried that the recent forcast they sent me is wrong as if I took mine now it would be a similar amount to you ( well they said around 11k a year), yet I seem to have loads more years of part time years than you than you.
1986 - 1992 - full time but a student nurse for 3 of those so earnings very low.
1992-1995 - left nursing to do a full time degree so no contributions.
1995-1997 - Full time.
1997-2001 - worked abroad so no contributions.
2001-2014 - very part time as raising 4 kids - maybe 2 or 3 days a week.
2014-2017 - possibly 3/ 4 days a week.
2017-2018 - 2 days a week ( did another non nhs job alongside it )
2018 - left the NHS altogether and will never return to it.

I should also say I did do a lot of nights and weekends during those years of part time work so I guess that would have made earnings higher, possible similar to someone doing a 9-5 nursing job. I guess it's so hard to even roughly compare as there are so many variables. I was pleasantly surprised by what they estimated I would get, I just hope it is correct.

Band 4.
I resigned when I was 58.

When you say you tried to log in, is that the SPPA website? What did it show? Even if the statement you found was out of date it should give you a rough idea of what you’ve built up so far.

To give you an idea of how much you’ll build up over the next few years have a look at this diagram.

If you want to pay in extra, think carefully about when you want that money. If you pay it into the NHS scheme then you won’t be able to take it until you reach state retirement age, which might leave you quite short from the age of 60 to 67/68. What a lot of us have done is set up a standalone SIPP which is a completely separate pension not related to the NHS. With that you build up a ‘pot’ which the government tops up by 25%, so for every £100 you put in the government adds £25. Over a few years you should be able to build up quite a nice pot. You can take the money out in chunks from when you reach the age of 55, soon to go up to 57. There are lots of SIPP providers out there - Vanguard is a very basic cheap option, but there are many others.

The advantage of a SIPP is that if you want to retire at 60, you can take the pension you have built up under the NHS 1995 scheme and top it up using the money in your SIPP until you reach the age where you can take the NHS 2015 pension. For most people it’s more tax efficient than saving in an ISA.

@Quercus5 - thanks - that's really helpful.

When I last logged on to SPPA, the benefit statement was for the year ending March 22 & then a message saying they'd write to update by August 24, in a remedial service statement.

It shows my pension of £11k a year under the old scheme & £4172 under CARE scheme.

I've used the calculators but that was where I wasn't sure how working part time in the past would affect the figures.

And yes, it's the time from 60-67 I'm most worried about.

Does setting up a SIPP reduce your tax?

This! Your Total Reward Statement will clearly show the current payout value and how each year has added to it.

You pay into a SIPP from your taxed income, ie you’ve already paid tax on it. So if you pay in £100 the government adds back the £25 which is the tax you’ve already paid.

You can take out 25% of a SIPP tax free whenever you take it out.

Of the other 75%, if you take it out when you’re 60-67 and receiving your 11k a year, then some of it will still be under your personal tax threshold so you won’t have to pay any income tax on that. You will have to pay income tax at the usual rates on anything you take out above your personal tax threshold, but overall you should end up paying less tax on it than if it hadn’t been in a SIPP.

Thanks - I was hoping to reduce my taxable income by paying more in to the pension, as I'm just above the child benefit threshold at the moment.

I also have a BTL which I was hoping to use to bridge the gap between 60-67, but with the current Scottish government's legislation I'll likely to sell that within the next year or two.

I think paying into a SIPP should count as reducing your taxable income as it’s a perfectly regular pension, but I don’t know anything about how it works in practice.

I'm guessing that I'd be able to put that in to my self-assessment form.

DW recently retired from nhs, joined scheme in 93, having left originally following first child, worked part time from 93 to 2011, think she was 30 hours, had 24 years in total when left as opposed to the 30 she would have had full time, your total rewards scheme info will tell you how many years you have. She was still in95 scheme though so probably better pension, I assume yours is part 2008 part 2015

If you call the Nhs pensions line they will give you one free written quote. They are very helpful. Total rewards takes a long time to update if your trust is slow- ours runs a year behind!

The earlier scheme had a 60 retirement date so retiring at 60 wouldn't trigger an actuarial reduction. Also worth noting that the scheme (in Scotland anyway) are offering partial retiral if you can arrange with your management. The calculators are supposed to be up and running before year end. DH looking into taking his benefits from the early scheme and dropping to 2 or 3 days a week and being on similar income. He's 62 though so already past retiral for that scheme. He'd still be paying into the newest scheme (as that's a condition of the partial retirement programme). He's thinking that this would bridge the gap until 67 together with a sipp he has.