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!!!

It's a large part of the reason our public services are struggling

Well, that cannot be true, PS pensions for decades were better than they are now, yet public services were better run, with less waste than we have now.

Privatisation of services and the ensuing duplication, coupled with huge funding cuts from central govt is why public services struggle.

Average yearly LGPS is less than £4000 per year, even less for women.

Plus the scheme makes a profit too.

Without knowing the salary each year, it is difficult to assess how £9000 is arrived at. If you took out a 25% tax free lump sum it would reduce the amount quite considerably. As you will not get a state pension until you are at least 67, you will need to work until then. Also, the "Commutation rate" is very poor in civil service DB schemes (only 13) so I would take out an AVC (Additional Voluntary Contributions) to provide the tax free lump sum when you go back to work.

No that's not it- in the public sector you have no choice you pay reduced NI, and have a reduced state pension-it has zero to do with SERPS.
The pension rules for public sector are COMPLETELY different- so stop saying you know what you are talking about-you don't.
My partner did not leave the civil service until the end of 2017- he never paid full NI, what you are saying is irrelevant to a civil service pension.

@Laurmolonlabe perhaps you will believe the government website.
https://www.gov.uk/contracted-out

Edit: Don’t forget this is an anonymous forum, you don’t know who may have far more direct experience of Civil Service pay, payroll and pensions.

You really are making things up now. Redcued NI may have been a thing years ago, but it isn’t now. And it applied to anyone. There was nothing social about public sector pensions.

Are you maybe getting confused with salary sacrifice schemes and think they are the same as SERPS?

It was totally to do with SERPS!

The reduction was because you were only paying NI towards basic state pension, not SERPS. That was the whole point.

You are completely wrong. Lots of people have given the correct answer. Civil service pensions were most definitely contracted out and it had absolutely everything to do with SERPS but it is no longer something that happens. If your husband retired in 2017 and had been contracted out with his civil service pension then he may not have gad enough years to make up contributions for the New State Pension so he will get a reduced rate. His reduced NI amount and civil service pension would have more than make up for the shortfall though, however it seems that he retired very early according to your previous posts so there will also have been a reduction of his civil service pension.

That must be wrong, surely. My pension for ten years part time in retail and very little over NMW is just over £8k. I'm 65 and have just taken early retirement so I know this is the exact figure.

Edit: Sorry, ignore me, I got carried away!

I agree

Are you aware of all the issues around Civil Service pensions at the moment?
The company who administered it were making a huge balls-up so it was put out to tender. Capita won the contract and took over last 1 December. There was a terrible backlog, thjngs hadn’t been done, etc, etc. Pensions aren’t being paid out (lump sums or monthly), the calculations are all loopy, it’s impossible to talk to anyone. It isn’t affecting everyone but a huge number of people are right in the shite because of this.

it’s been discussed in Parliament this week. Cabinet Office are trying to get to grips with it all.
So, don’t trust your ABS. Try it again in a few months.

You could have a look at the FB group ‘Civil Service Pensions - Help & Advice, it’s a real mess, and it looks as if it’s been building up for years. Capita were unaware of the extent of the backlog when they took over the contract (although I have no great love for Capita anyway).

Sorry, me again.
And there’s a new app since Capita took over which is not working properly. You’ll have to register again for it, even if you had the old app.
But it’s all skew-wiff (?) anyway so a bit pointless.
There are people retired last September who still haven’t had accurate quotes let alone actual payments.

Bit of comparison here (not read full thread btw), I have 30 years RN service in the NHS, 1995 pension mainly and have come out with £10k a year working 30 hours the last 3 years. I've flexi retired due to long Covid so still working. £9k sounds pretty good for 15 years tbf.

I’m coming up for a year trying to get them to correct a glaring error on mine. Maddening.

So pleased your pension was a lot better than you feared.

Some people are experiencing severe hardship due to this CSPS fiasco. I don’t mean Grade 7s and above with a couple of decades service, they probably have other assets they can rely on in the meantime (apols if you’re a Grade 7). I mean people who have done 40 years in a support staff role on barely above minimum wage. Even people who are being medically retired. They can’t get accurate figures and when they do the money’s not being paid out.
They’ve been messed about enough, what with the change to Alpha or Nuvos whatever, then waiting years for their McCloud remedy letters.
None of it concerns me personally. I have a deferred Classic pension which I don’t need to claim as yet. I haven’t had an ABS since about 2021 because as a deferred member you have to request an updated one, it’s not done automatically.
I feel very badly for these people.

I commented on the original post. I wasn't going to comment on an amended version

But why would comment on a thread that was 48 hours old and thought no one gave the wisdom you did and no one else had thought of this and had the ‘oh wow’ moment 2 days later without bothering to read an updated thread

Make sense will you

That does seem a bit low . Last 10 years of my working life , part time school caretaker I took the lump sum of 19K and get £180 a month . It's the only 'private' pension I have so OPs does seem v. low ?

Defined benefit civil service ensions stopped being offered to new starters in the early 2000's. With only 13 years of service if she retires today it will be similar to any other defined contribution pension.

Government pensions have not been DB for quite some time.

They are still defined benefit, just CARE instead of final salary.