My pension is worth NOTHING

[RosieBright]

I had a job for 13 years in Government and kept thinking it was a great pension as folk kept telling me. I looked at my pension paperwork when the annual statement came through and I have £9000.
I thought that was A YEAR!!! But no, it's worth about £30 a month 😱
How can I boost this? I need anoth £100K to even have half a decent pension

Help!!!

You need to speak to someone about it. £9000 sounds wrong. Have you only just discovered the value?

Was it Local Government or a central department like HMRC, DWP, MOD ?

ETA pls ignore, I've seen your update! Good that you have some nice news OP 👍

To be fair, I did phone a pension helpline and they said it was a benefit scheme and they couldn't answer my questions

Is tht £9000 lump sum?
Find out how much you will get per month when you retire, if you don't take the lump sum.

I only paid into mine for four years and what it brings in per month certainly helps quite a bit.

very glad this had a good outcome OP! Hope you can now relax.

like myself and many others. Part of it is payable at 65 and rest at SPA. However you can take all of it whenever you like (after 57 (now)) and it will be slightly actuarially reduced.

It says 65 because that is the NRA for the schemes that the statement is for. The state pension is 67 for someone your age and anyone joining a workplace pension now would usually also be 67. You can take your work pensions without reduction from 65. If you were to go back to work in local government / civil service now then any new pension would be tied to state pension age.

Looks like a pension of 9600.

9k a year sounds about right as I have been civil service for five years and have around half of that predicted.

Nuvos had a pension age of 65 but your Alpha pension is tied to your state pension age of 67. Don't know much about nuvos but assume similar actuarial reductions of 5% per year. But, you'll have 2 fewer years to apply that. When do you want to retire?

If it’s a defined benefit pension then £9000 a year is about £750 a month not £30 a month! Do you understand the different types of pensions op?

The Nuvos pension will pay out from age 65- £5300 per year or whatever it was. Then from 67 you'll get both Nuvos and Alpha so £5300+ £4300=£9600 per year. And both will go up every year with inflation.

Thank you, I didn't realise what information people on here would need to begin with! I didn't have a clue. I am actually returning to the job to add to my pension, that's why I looked. My other pension from a massive company says £4500 so I have that as well

That's quite some "quiet bragging" there!!

Haven’t read all the posts but surely you add the 2 figures from the 2008 and 2015 pensions and you have 9+k?

Yeah if it is Alpha it is a DB pension so there is not "pot", that £9k is what you will get per year not the total sum.

I was in Nuvos and then Alpha for eight years and my current projection is £13k pa

@RosieBright But Nuvos' Normal Pension Age (NPA) had that as 65. So you could claim that part of your occupational pension at age 65, without it being reduced. Or you could carry on paying into it if the rules allow and get a bit more when you do retire. The Alpha part, is either age 65 OR your State pension age whichever is later if you don't want to take it with any reduction. So you can't take that part until you are 67 without it being reduced.

It is possible to take your public service pension earlier than the Normal Pension Age (NPA) but it will be reduced for every year you take it before the NPA. (usually by quite a lot) Normal Pension Age for Occupational Pensions are not necessarily the same as the State Pension Age, which can be confusing to get your head round.

I hope you can get some information/training around your Civil Service Pensions , when you go back to the job, before you have to make decisions as to what you want to do. You really, really, do need to understand how it all works, before you get to thinking about retiring. There are a lot of options that can be made which can make a big difference, including the lump sum that you will get when you do take your pensions

Sorry - that last bit about the lump sum should say including the lump sum that you may want to take when you do take your pensions

The teacher pension is decent

Good advice from @Silvers11 . You should be able to book onto a Teams training session once you’re back in. There’s also a lot of info on the CS pension podcast- for example an explainer here on how it works when you’re in two schemes https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/civil-service-pensions-podcast/id1641883859?i=1000669995794

Hardly, it was to help show the figures that her DB could be worth. But thanks for that, I won’t bother trying to help anymore.

You weren't bragging, you were helping. Ignore the permanently offended and jealous on here. It is becoming ridiculous that you cant post on the money forum or the investment forum without some idiots accusing you of bragging. It happens all the time on here. They just make themselves look a bit stupid.

Thanks, it does start to get to the stage when you feel you should stay quiet, rather than offend someone.

I’ve done 25yrs in civil service. Currently earning 69k, but 7yrs ago was part time on 25k, and I’ve done 10yrs part time. If I work till 67, assuming 3% rise each year (could be less) I can take 270k lump sum, and 39k per year. Plus state pension. That’s assuming no more promotions and I have 18yrs to go. I’d say it’s pretty amazing. That will be 43yrs service.

If you don't have a pot, would it make sense paying in additional pension contributions (APC) in an LGPS pension?

I'm very confused as I keep reading the term saving into your pension...

Sure. I am always thinking about putting more into my pension. But as a single parent of 3 with no financial support from the ex, it has always had to fall by the wayside. Had to live in the here and now. I am probably not alone with that one. It's not helpful to make such comments, is it? I am sure the OP is fully aware she should have done things differently. Whether she actually could have done things differently is another thing entirely. Not everyone lives a life where there is enough to put away, even for a rainy day, let alone a future that might not even happen.