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!!!

Working part time will reduce it. You earnt less in wages so accrued less in pension. That doesn't make it a bad scheme - you would have a much smaller amount in any other pension.

OP has confirmed that she is up to date with NI for state pension.

Thanks. I have looked at the website, and it is still confusing for me. I might ring tomorrow.

I think what makes it more confusing is I that signed up about 18 years ago, under different rules (so when I went into the scheme it was based on 'final salary', which it isn't any more for example, plus some other benefits that I can't fully recall), some of which still apply to the portion of my earnings that were taken before they changed their terms. I have a very chunk in the DC bit, but have only been earning over the threshold for a couple of years so I imagine I accrued that under the old rules? If I retire at 65 I will be ok, as I started this pension at 24 and it's a generous enough scheme - but I don't want to work that long!

If it t was a defined benefit pension, the Pension Protection Scheme might still pay out some or even most of the loss. A similar thing happened to my husband but his pension is paid by PPS. He gets maybe 90% of what he would have got if the scheme hadn't disappeared.
www.moneyhelper.org.uk/en/pensions-and-retirement/pension-problems/the-pension-protection-fund

That’s annual. Civil service pensions runs it so you should contact them if you have questions, not HMRC. You will also have state pension. You’ll get the alpha bit from 65, the nuvos from your state retirement age. If you take either element early or late you will have it adjusted down/up accordingly.
civil service pensions has been transferred to a new operator and they are messing everything up, you won’t find anything on the portal. Will take time to sort out but don’t expect speedy replies.

Op (and a anyone with questions on a DB scheme. The Moneyhelper pension help line answers questions on db,dc and the state pension
0800 011 3797

Well I stand corrected and quite amazed!
I'm 67, worked 20 years full time and my annual pension is £6,600.
And im not complaining- I manage perfectly well on that and my state pension.
So much for being 'a boomer' ! 🤣

@Leedsfan247 is that lgp

The OP said the pension fund is worth 9k which does tally with their monthly figure of £30. Mine is worth 12k and if I take my tax free lump sum I'm left with 9k.which equates to £30 per month.

Wow, that’s the equivalent of paying £11k a year into a DC scheme,

@AndeanFlamingo that's so clever

@pastabest I'm earning a lot lower than that and in 7th or 8th year.
I could buy an extra 100 per month if I'm allowed on lgp would that be worth it or keep paying into my sipp investment in stocks ?

Unfortunately civil service pension is very little as your contributions are very small. For 22 and half years service I received a lump sum of £17,000 and I only get £446 per month. It is calculated on your final year's salary . As said before the contributions are very little so I'm not surprised.

No you need to read the thread or at least OPs updates

But it's not a total pot, it's an annual amount. Giving a monthly figure of £750.

Lack of information but I left civil service ages ago and challenged my shockingly low pension. Turns out when info from paper files was put onto computer someone made a mistake. Invest the money in a fund. Talk to a financial advisor which would be a strong growth one.

This guide says the alpha pension builds up at 2.32% of your salary each year so for you that's up to £850 per year for 13 years bearing in mind your salary will have gone up in that time. Neuvos will be a different rate I assume but not that different. So yes your pension is approx £9k per year. www.householdmoneysaving.com/alpha-pension-a-simple-guide/

I got a really good Teachers pension. How long were you teaching for?

I’m surprised anyone can think they can work for 13 years anywhere and for it to set them up into their retirement.

I don't think this is your pot. I have a LG pension and before I retired what I could see on the benefit statement was roughly what I received in pension pa. Contact your scheme administrator and ask for clarification. No, it's not a great pension regardless of what some may say but it does depend on how your pension fund operated.

Im in the LGPS and I’ve worked for 20 years but all part time, low grade jobs and my pension is £13k pa £1100 pcm you must be mistaken.

Is it a civil service pension that’s been recently transferred to capita? Sounds extremely low and incorrect CSP were/ are meant to be one of the best public sector pensions!? Worrying about by own now however I’m still in my 30s

Teacher pension, LGPS, civil service or any other public service pension is a defined benefit. It is clearly £9000pa at normal retirement age. A lot of noise and sensenalisatiin it appears!!! Why not get to understand rather than posting on SMS!!!

Maybe read some of the posts on the thread. There are countless explanations as to why the OP had the wrong end of the stick