Clueless about pensions- Help please!!

[Sunny36]

Hello 👋

I currently work for the NHS and contribute to a pension. I have been paying into this for almost 14 years however for most of that time I have been working part time hours (raising DCx2) so the pot is not as good as it could have been

I have another 30+ years before retirement age but my husband will only have state pension and a very small 'people's pension' that was introduced by government a few yrs back.

My NHS pension is now in line with state pension- you can retire sooner but I have been told your pension is massively reduced if you do this.

So I want to be able to save another pension pot or boost my NHS one (if that is even an option) but I have no idea where to begin.

I'm afraid of going with a pension and loosing everything because they are dodgy or go bust or god knows. I'm so clueless. Any advice or any idea who to go to for further info.

All help appreciated

If you have 30 years before retirement and intend to work all that time in the NHS then you’ll end up with a pretty decent pension. If your DH also has 30 years to retirement, then he needs to pay into his workplace pension too!

Not familiar with the NHS pension but I should imagine you can pay AVC's to boost your retirement fund.

Alternatively start a private pension and your contributions will automatically be topped up by the government (why they are tax efficient).
Find an IFA and they will advise for no fee (they get a fee from the pension provider you choose to go with).

Call Pension Wise to set up a telephone appt.
Personally, I would stay in the NHS defined benefit pension scheme. 30 years is a good amount of time to build a decent pension.

"Alternatively start a private pension and your contributions will automatically be topped up by the government (why they are tax efficient).
Find an IFA and they will advise for no fee (they get a fee from the pension provider you choose to go with)."

Needless to say, I meant to run this AS WELL AS your NHS pension and NOT to opt out.
No-one will ever give you "free" money but employer contributions are about as close as you can get

Pension Wise is only for people who are 50+ and they don’t advise on defined benefit schemes like the NHS anyway.

OP there is information here about paying extra into the NHS pension:
https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/member-hub/increasing-your-pension

I suggest also looking at the Facebook group ‘NHS and Public Sector Pensions information’. Lots of helpful stuff there and the company that runs the site also runs free webinars explaining how the scheme works which would probably be useful for you and would help you understand whether paying more into NHS or setting up a separate private scheme is the right choice for you.

As a starting point you need to understand your pensions. If you have been paying in for 14 years you be in the 2008 scheme with a normal retirement age (NRA) of 65 and from 2022, the 2015 scheme which has a NRA of whatever your state pension age will be. You can find information from the pension guides available on the NHS pensions website.

As above I would however advise having a look at the NHS and Public Sector Pensions Information group on Facebook and book on to one of the webinars.

Despite changes to the NHS pensions, it is still one of the best pensions out there.

Look up Pen-gage on Facebook. Lots of free advice & free webinars - they have in-depth working knowledge of the NHS pension.

Why have you started 2 threads with identical wording but under different names?

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