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!!!

They are basically 80th schemes. For every year you get 1/80 of your final salary as pension and 3/80 as a lump sum.

You've been there 13yrs so 13/80 x your salary is your pension. Are you sure you're reading the numbers correctly?

A £10k salary would give around £135 pcm.

@Pickledpoppetpickle just put any spare into investment ISA rather than locking it until retirement, that way u can access it in emergency.

I haven't read the thread so apologies if this is repeated. But OP, get yourself into the govt website and see what your state forecast looks like. If you are missing years, it can be very cost effective to top that up as well.

yeah, sure. the point I was makign is that there isn't always money to spare. Any money. trying to tell someone they should have invested more is just rude. OP knows it. She didn't. So she needs help with that reality moving forwards. Should have helps no one.

OP has a really good pension. The person chastising her earlier was just being an idiot.

I disagree with your advice on two counts.

1. If the money is to be an 'emergency fund' and the person has no other cash deposit, taking on investment risk is not appropriate.
2. If she were to have an emergency fund taken care of, and is unlikely to access the money before age 57, the tax relief available on a pension contribution will increase her initial investment, and will also benefit from the additional compounded returns as the following example for a basic rate taxpayer shows:

ISA
£20,000 Investment, 5% Growth rate, 20 year term
£54,252 return

Pension
£20,000 Investment, £5,000 tax relief 5% Growth rate, 20 year term
£67,816 return.

£13.5k on a £20k investment.

This affect will be greater with higher returns.

Neither of the pensions OP referred to are 1/'80th schemes. Nor are they final salary schemes. I made that mistake earlier They are career average schemes. So that calculation is completely wrong.

I feel for you and im in the same position but I world int the charity sector

This! Surely it works out at £9k a year. I'm going into relatively mid level local government role and I'll clock £1k per year I work there as pension. I.e. If I work there 5 years that will be £5k a year pension.

Don’t share with us, speak to your pre ious employer’s payroll team. K hope you’ve misread snd that your pension is actually much higher.

Did you pay into any pension before your 40s?

Joint contributions would be a third of your pay for 13 years - something is not right. Unless you were earning £2000 a year?

I’ve had mine worked out recently, uni job, and they told me the choice of lump sums along side the annual amount - I’m hoping you’re seeing you’ll get £9k PA … do you also get a lump sun?

Not read all the comments and apologies if someone else has already commented this.
Alpha and Nuvos are both career average schemes. Nuvos (now-closed to new members) builds a pensionable income at 1/43.5 of your pensionable pay each year, with a normal pension age of 65. Alpha is the current scheme but with a slightly better accrual of 1/43.1 and a normal pension age linked to State Pension age (but higher contributions). The figures you've shown are likely yearly amounts (I work in the pension industry). Please consider seeing a financial adviser. Find one that will help you with cash flow forecasting and they can help you to understand any shortfalls and put plans in place to address them.

A company pension might well be defined contribution rather than defined benefit. If it is, you need to know whether the £4500 is the predicted annual payment (good) or the total pot (tiny).

No, they aren't final salary or 1/80. Why give advice when you don't have the correct information?

OP has the correct answer to her question already. It is clear on her statement and she has confirmed the details.

When I take the bulk of my teachers pension next year at 60 I get a 56k lump sum and 19 k per year. At 67 I get another 3K. Been teaching 24 years . Not Head of Dept or senior management. OP that just sounds wrong. My DH’s school swapped out of teachers pension 4 years ago and his pension pot is 85k already and he also gets 13 k per year from the teachers pension.

Good, but it was more about the “website isn’t working” bit - it is working, it’s working just as described.

£9000 a year sounds about right. I've got a gvt pension from 12 years service that will be worth a little bit more than that, but that could be explained by different salaries. When you go back to work I'd consider making additional voluntary contributions because that can really bump up your final benefit.

Is it payable in full at 60 or are you taking it early and taking a reduction? (Just interested!)

If you're returning, you might be able to buy Added Years. I worked as a teacher for 12 years, brought in 2 years worth of previous contributions and bought 2 Added Years. This enabled me to retire early and my Teacher's Pension is about £9000 p.a. (I know the schemes have changed now but this might give you some idea.)

As I do you probably have a preserved right to draw your pension at 65 which I assume was the pension age for women when you left - or in my case 60 😀

As others have said, relax. Alpha is a defined benefit scheme. This will be your annual pension. Do get it checked but do not lose sleep.

How did you come up with the figure of 30 per month?

It may be for you. Many people can’t even log in, pensions haven’t been paid etc. it’s a complete mess.