NHS pension disappointment.

[Stillearninglife]

After 33 years in the NHS I have been battling with pensions as they “lost” years and years of my pension due to “clerical errors “.
Now I have a prediction which I intend on taking at 55.

Seemingly one of the best pensions around, reading of other people’s pensions, it is utterly crap.

33 years with a lump sum of less than £80k then monthly payments of less than £800 per month is so low. All those years at B7 diligently paying in thinking I will be ok financially and it’s just dire.

I left the NHS due to conditions and pay some time ago (2 years ago) so nothing is going into the pot, so I’m taking it at 55 next year.

Anyone had similar experience with NHS pension?

Ive been paying into my private pension for 25 years, am a higher rate tax payer. 800 a month from 55 sounds pretty amazing to me.
From what you have said, I think you need to speak to a proper advisor as from other posts, delaying it until 60 could mean you arent opting out of the scheme and bumpnit considerably. Also, taking it at 55 and then reinvesting it, why do this if you dont't nred thr money?
you need to look at the comparisons for thE different scenarios. Get a spreadsheet up and lay out all the different scenarios and comalre them.

1. Take it at 55 and spend it
2. Take it at 55 and reinvest
3. Leave it until 60
4. Leave it until 65

Include your wages, private pension, nhs pension and tax on income, into the calculation to see what you end up with each month, then project it over 5/10/15/20/30 years.

The problem is the nhs pensions and the changes that have happened means that you nearly need to retire to see what you are getting. I have heard colleagues trying to negotiate their way through, and it’s complicated and confusing. Special classes seems like a gift to me (in a later nhs scheme) but I do wonder if you lose them if you aren’t in a qualifying post when you start to take the pension.
I still can’t understand why your payments would be £900 a month though? The maximum superannuation rate is around 12% currently, that would roughly give you a gross monthly pay of over £9k.

@Stillearninglife
As I understand it you have 30 years service so some will be in the 1995 scheme, some in the 2008 scheme unless in 2008 you were allowed to and chose to stay in the 1995 scheme.

Plus if you worked after 01/04/2015 you may be impacted by McCloud.You will know if you have any pension in the 2015 scheme.

My advice is to do the following:

• clarify which pension scheme(s) you were in with the dates
• get two or three estimates for each scheme as follows:
• pension at age 55
• pension at age 60
• pension at scheme retirement age (65 for 2008 scheme and state pension age for 2015 scheme)
• if you were ever in the 2015 scheme you should have/will get an options pack giving you the choice between 1995/2008 or 2015.

If you just have 1995 and 2015 that is good news and makes it easier to do a comparison.

I honestly believe with McCloud and if you were in the 1995 scheme until 2015 if you can wait to 60 your figures will be much higher.

Nhs employee here similarly baffled by pensions- i can't add to the helpful advice OP has already received but wanted to thank this poster for this very helpful recommendation! I'd never heard of medifintech

They are brilliant - I'd really recommend them! Financial advice isn't cheap (I think their basic report is £800) but I'd used another company before this and they'd got their calculations WRONG which ended up costing a lot more in the long run. These guys are expert!

This post has made it very clear that there is a lot of misunderstanding about pensions generally. Everyone of us should learn about our pensions as early as possible. Most are not as complicated as you think they are. It is essential to understand the relevant rules and regulations, keep your March payslips and check annual statements. Far easier to do it as you go along and sort out any issues promptly rather than have to sort something out that happened 20 years ago. Most of us pay a lot of money every month for years into our pensions and we are doing ourselves a disservice if we don’t try to get to grips with our pensions schemes.

After scheme guides, pension wise is a good starting point for those not in public sector schemes. For public sector schemes there are sources of help, but mainly paid for, although there are a couple of very good facebook groups including Pen-gage. Some public sector employers do run pension workshops, although historically have tended to target them to older employees. Everyone should have access them and if necessary badger your employer as I did to get on one at a younger age. The time between starting your work life and retirement can go very quickly and its never too soon to learn about the ins and outs of what will be your income in retirement.

You lose that status if you leave before you reach your SC age and pension age reverts to 60

I would echo the advice to go on the MSE Pension Forum. There are several expert advisors on NHS, Teaching and Local Govt pension schemes. You may find that special status might only cover part of your pension.

If it is like my pension nobody receives benefits on payments they make after the benefit is removed. So if I retire at 60 there will be no reductions for retiring early on the payments I made before 2010 because that was the pension age for women. Benefits from payments after the are lower though as the pension age was higher than 60.

I hadn't heard of them either. Very helpful. I'm on an NHS pensions Facebook page and so many people seem to be very confused about their NHS pensions. They aren't very transparent at all.

Well yes it would be higher if you started to take it at normal retirement age - much higher. Thats why it’s so low. If you took it at age 67 you would get way more.

It depends how old you are? You lose special status/mh officer status if you are not in post at the age you can retire
there is an excellent FB group run by Pengage who is a pension expert, I got all my info from there before battling with NHS pensions

@Stillearninglife sorry quoted by mistake

Don't take money from a pension that you don't need without good financial advice .

If you’re still working why wouldn’t you just leave it there and take it at the scheme retirement age? Then you’ll get a decent amount.

Its not a pot that will increase if you leave it by the way - it’s based on your salary and years,
nothing to do with the ‘pot’ - that’s only for DV schemes. (Though logically for a DC scheme, even if you’re not contributing, taking it early will mean you get less as it has to support you for more years.)

It only grows with CPI increases. Which it does when in payment anyway. OP has protected status for the 1995 scheme so there is no advantage to her to leave that part of pension until she is 67 she would be losing 10+ years of monthly payments if she did that as she is no longer contributing.

That's not how the NHS pension works.

This would be a really daft move and highly unlikely that any IFA would touch it.

He did not retire due to ill health under the scheme. He was ill - a mental health problem - but refused to acknowledge this openly and take health retirement, so as far as the scheme was concerned he simply stopped paying in.

@BoysnmeDeluded idea, and nationally known to be an absolute no.

Both final salary and career average schemes are defined benefit schemes ..

You cannot transfer money out of NHS schemes .

Sounds gutting from an emotional point of view.
But I think from a maths point of view they have you over a barrel.
You've contributed about 900 a month for 33 years.
You're taking a lump sum which is 25%(is it?) of your pension value.
That takes you down to 25 years contributions.
Even though it might not feel like it, life expectancy is 82 years if you are female(and increasing believe it or not)
You plan to take your pension from 55.
That gives 27 years of payments to you from 25 years of contributions.

So even though you paid in 900 a month and got some investments returns, your pension only gives you 800 due to your pension being paid longer than the time you were contributing for.

I like the suggestion to take it and invest it. This means you feel like it's properly yours, but you still get the returns for later life.
Take care.

I see you have special status OP, so entitled to take pension at 55. I did this at 55 last year. Your figures sound way out. I'll dm you mine for comparison, with 34 years service ( I worked 36,but dropped to part time/30 hours for 12 years). You will of been paying in more than me as I was a B6 for most of my career.

I would check with someone who knows about pensions that there definitely is no actuarial reduction for taking it at 55. As a GP which is "front line" I could only take it at 60 in the 95 scheme, I think psychiatrists can get it at 55 without reduction but no other docs. The BMA advises docs on pensions, are you in the RCN?