NHS pension

[dumpydumpydumpdump]

I am confused!

When I joined the nhs it was the 95 scheme and I thought I accrued 1/84 of annual salary in benefit each year. So if I worked 42 years my pension would be 50% of final salary.

Looking at last years statement I had 17 years in the 95 which gave a pension of just about 10 grand. There is then another 2 grand in the 2015 scheme.

The statement says current value so is that assuming I pay nothing more in? So if I do another 17 years the final benefit would hopefully be double that?

Because to be absolutely honest it feels a bit less than I expected? But I'm not sure if I'm being very dim?

1995 scheme:
£10k on 17 years and 1/84th py (although a quick Google suggests 1/80th py?) would imply a final salary of approx £50k (£47k on 1/80th).
Does that tally with where you are now?
I'd so then presumably this increases if your final salary increases?

2015 scheme:
What is the accrual rate and what salary is applied (career average?)
I'm guessing 9 years to date?

Ah right! Yes probs 1/80.
It's only 2 years on the 2015 scheme as I didn't move across until we had to which was 2022. It's career average.

It would just be helpful if somewhere in the endless nhs staff stuff it said 'keep going like this and you'll be getting x per year'

Surely it is obvious though that current value is as things stand. If you continue to pay in it will increase each year.

The 2015 scheme is 1/54 accrual. Did you leave the NHS or the pension scheme as there was also the 2008 scheme in the middle.

No I stayed in the 95 scheme. Didn't trust the 2008

I forgot that was an option 🤣

If you are on Facebook, look up Pengage.
They are a company that does lots of free info & webinars for pensions like the NHS & teachers etc.
Laura who runs the page runs free webinars explaining all the NHS pensions plus McCloud.

The current scheme is a ‘career average’ scheme. Every year you build up a block of pension based on your salary and accrual rate. I’m pretty sure the NHS accrual rate is 1/54.
So if you earn £50,000 per year, each year you’ll build up 50,000 / 54 =£ 925.93 annual pension. Then your pension built up increases in line with inflation.
So assuming your salary goes up roughly in line with inflation, if you have 17 years to go until retirement you’ll build up 925.93 x 17 =15,740.81, to add to the pension you’ve already built up.

A couple of important things:

• it works like this if you work to ‘Normal Pension Age’ - which is whatever your scheme defines it as. And it may be different for the current scheme than earlier schemes you have pension built up in. It might be different to state pension age
• You can retire before Normal Pension Age but because you’ll be drawing pension earlier and therefore for longer, the annual pension would be reduced. The reductions vary by scheme but losing 5% for taking one year early or 20% for taking 5 years early wouldn’t be unusual

100% this group! And another nhs pensions group. Their advice is invaluable. I've learnt so much from them.
Dont forget that TRS is not updated to this year at the moment and it's working from 2023-24 amounts.

I wasn't aware of the nhs opting us out of full national insurance contributions and so I still have 7 years to make up to qualify for full government pension. (If they told me I had no idea what that meant at 21 when I started in nhs) - thankfully this take me to 56 when I intend on taking my '95 pension and dropping hours

The 1995 pension will depend on your final salary and this element may be available from age 60. Also remember this is money that you’ll receive for life on top of your state pension. It would cost a great deal to buy this privately.

I left the NHS about 18 months ago as it totally broke me.

I had worked for them for just under 18 years and I have been told my pension will be £7’000 a year. I found it quite depressing to be honest.