McCloud judgement query- NHS

[TheGander]

I work for the NHS and am affected by McCloud. I’m 57 and plan on retiring at 60, if not a year earlier if I can afford it. I’m a band 7 and have worked 4 days per week for the last 6 years, except in 2018 when I worked 5 days a week Just wanted to check I understand correctly- am I better off taking final salary pension till 2022? To complicate matters it looks like I could be made redundant from April or early summer. I’m going to be looking for another band 7 job. Just wondering, if I have to settle for a band 6 for the last 2 years of my career, will this have a negative effect on my pension( beyond lower contributions for the last 2 working years). Something about best of last 3 years makes me think this could be a problem. Thanks for any information.

My understanding is you effectively have 2 pensions. One the (presumably) 1995 that you can “extend” to 2022, and another career average (2015) from 2022. So settling for a lower band from next year will only affect your last bit of pension. Perhaps your redundancy settlement will offset some of that disadvantage?

I believe 1995 is calculated on best year in the last three of pensionable service. So taking a step down in the last two years isn't as detrimental as it might initially seem.

Thank you both. My redundancy payment would only be 6 months as I had a break in service between this job and the last. I’d prefer a band 7 job of course but they are scarcer than band 6 within my skill set. Good news about best of last 3, if I only work 2 years after this job I should be ok then.

There may be an option to 'freeze' your banding for pension purposes. Ask about that in your redundancy discussions.

As for whether you're better to move the McCloud years forward or back, you'll get both calculations when you retire so can make the decision on actual figures.

You need all the information including actuarial reduction figures before making a decision which one is best.

If redeployment is an option, particularly to a band 6 ask for your band 7 pay to be protected. It’s usually a much cheaper option than redundancy.

The partial retirement calculator is now available on the nhs pension website. If you enter your details you can adjust retirement date, lump sum etc to see estimates of pension if you chose 1995 or 2015 for the McCloud remedy period. I am 59 with the majority of my pension in the 1995 but it made interesting reading for me.