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?

Roughly (I'm assuming full years, and 2 × 1 year for maternity leave.)

1995 section - 27 years at top band 7 = approx £16k a year at normal pension age, or around £13k if taken at 55.

2015 section will only be about £1k if you left 2 years ago. Approx £500 if taken now.

What is it that you want - more lump sum or more mo they pay me t be use your figures Imply you have maxed out the lump at the expense of the monthly. Is that what you want?

Join the groups and get learning - they are good

Also even if ultimately a little disappointing these DB schemes are gold plated compared to probate pension pots - you are luckier than you feel

I am in a local government pension scheme so not exactly the same as NHS, but this is an example of the pension reduction in our scheme for early retirement. It may help you to understand what the implications of taking your pension early could be, and the benefits of taking it later if you can. Whatever you decide, I wish you well.

Are you sure? I don't know about NHS schemes particularly, but most DB schemes have a penalty for taking them early, so that if you take them at state pension age you get the full amount, but if you take them early you have a penalty of (e.g.) 4% each year of early retirement, as you'll be taking it for longer. So if your state retirement age is 67 and you take your pension at 55, you'd lose 48% of it (4% a year), meaning you'd get just over half of what you'd get if you waited till 67.

@Stillearninglife
I can totally sympathise with how you feel; I worked in the NHS for 37 years and was literally counting the days towards retirement.

I retired with Special Class status at age 55, so received full pension. I looked at leaving earlier but my pension dropped off a cliff even if I left a couple of months before, I think about a third less.

One thing you keep saying is that because of your SCS, there’s no reduction. Sadly, I think you’re mistaken.
To receive full pension at age 55, you have to be still in a post which attracts SCS on the day you retire.

If you’ve already left the NHS, you’ve lost the right to claim full pension at 55, you need to wait till 60.

As other posters have said, the scheme isn’t based on what you’ve paid in, it’s on your final salary (or best of last three years) when you retire.

I would take sound advice on whether taking the money now and investing it is better/worse than leaving it in the scheme.

I get that it’s massively disappointing when you feel badly treated as it is.

Good luck x

The increase is CPI, not RPI.

33 years really isn't that long a time, though. With the current state pension age of 67 and starting work at 22, I'm looking at working for 44 years. And that's with a civil service pension, so typically seen as a good pension. There's no more of this being able to claim your full pension before state pension age.

I did. And it was me she thanked. 🤷‍♀️

Im pretty sure you weren’t paying £900/month pension contributions for most of your career. Im currently paying £950 a month on a salary that’s almost double that of a band 7 currently. With both a lower salary in the past and lower employee contributions you either weren’t paying £900 or something has gone very wrong

Any overtime or extra work above your 37.5hrs is NOT pensionable - so even extra bank hours won’t push up your contributions

If you are no longer working for NHS by taking it at 55 you lose 21 percent.
Also if you having larger lump sum then you get less monthly pension .

I took my NHS pension at 65, after 25 years service, full time, top of B7. It is similar to what you are predicted. Good luck in getting clarity from NHS pensions though, it is completely opaque! I have found email gets results - eventually!

How much did you pay in a month? The reason I ask is that with a £80k lump payment plus £800 a month for say 30 years (as you are accessing it at 55) that would be a pot worth £368k if it was on a drawdown. Add inflation onto that (as your DB pension will go up with inflation) and it would higher than that again.

So as an example that isn't out of the realms of reality, to accumulate £450k over 30 years in the private sector you need to set aside £600 a month. Is that what you have been doing? If not, I would say you are on the side of winning rather than losing out.

It's hard deciding when to draw, isn't it? I mean, until you actually have the money in your account it doesn't feel real. Also, if you died before taking the lump sum, it's my understanding that a spouse can't ever access that lump sum and that they would only get 50% of the monthly sum (so £400). I could be wrong on that?? Can anyone confirm? A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.

OP please make sure you claim at 55, you will lose special class status once you have been out of the NHS for 5 years or more and won't be able to claim until you are 60 under the 95 scheme. I found this out a couple of weeks ago to my great disappointment.

Your monthly amount seems very low compared to the lump sum. Under the 95 scheme the lump sum is usually 3 times pensionable pay. If your monthly pension is £800 that would make your annual pension £9600, giving you a lump sum of £28800. If the 80k lump sum is correct then there has been a miscalculation with the monthly payments which hopefully NHS pensions can sort out for you.

Your pension is index linked and will continue to rise in line with the CPI whilst you are not paying in, both before and after you claim.

Ignore any advice about how private pensions work, you know the NHS scheme is different.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/565069481354506/?ref=share

If you're on FB this group has a wealth ok knowledge and advice.

@FOJN the OP has left the NHS, so has lost special class status.

If you were to do this, you need to be confident you can better the increase the pension will accrue by doing absolutely nothing, i.e. CPI + the lowering reduction for early access.
Personally I would rather not take that gamble.

I understood it remained valid for up to 5 years after leaving service.

You can’t have special status if you left the NHS 2 years ago

Have you spoken to your Union? "Clerical error" is no excuse, it's theft.

No

To be fair, op has worked for 33 years as Frontline NHS. It is a bit pathetic that it's that low ( if you think from a years served perspective, rather than the age perspective)

If you want to stop working 20 years before most others will, then you have to accept you'll have to live on less. This isn't a difficult concept. If you wanted a bigger pension you should have contributed more to a private one.

33 years isn't enough for a full pension, plus OP is trying to draw (at least) some of it for 12 years more than it is intended. That's a lot of extra payments.