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Civil Service Pension (and refund of WPS contributions)
Hi all I am trying to find out how much the WPS contribution part of my CS pension is? I appreciate it will not be paid out until I fully retire (I part retried in 2018- Classic). I have been single throughout my CS career. I don't currently want to raise a query due to the current mess the CS pension is in re Capita !…
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Mortgage, pension dilemma
I’m 65 in December and currently planning to work until 67. I took out a small mortgage just over 2 years ago for £50k, there is currently £29k left to pay at £968 month, the rate is 5.85% I have savings which I’m considering to use part to pay the mortgage off. The money that I’d be saving monthly on the mortgage I’ll…
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How valuable is my DB pension actually?
I am 37 and I have a DB pension currently worth £15k per year. A quick google search tells me that to draw down that much on a DC pension pot it would typically be a pot of £375-400k. This seems staggering to me since google also says the average pension pot size at retirement age is currently circa £150k. How can I be so…
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CS 'Widowers Pension Scheme' refunds - any way to calculate amount?
Quote from CS pension website - 'All classic members contribute 1.5% of their salary towards a pension for their spouse or civil partner in the possible event of their (the member’s) death. If the member never married and remains single until the point of retiring, they may be eligible to receive a refund of these…
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25 pence per week WOW!!!
I got my letter from DWP about my April increase and it said from my 80th birthday in a few weeks I will get 25 pence weekly increase. WOW!
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Querying USS retirement quotations?
Do any of the USSers on the forum have experience of how best to query information from USS and actually have them engage with the query. Back in Feb 2025, when my institution opened a VSS, I asked for a retirement quotation for end of July 2025, which I did not take up. Now in January 2026, I asked for a quotation for…
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Tax and Drawdown
My DW will earn circa £5k from her savings (ex ISAs) in tax year 25/26 which will be tax free as covered by the £5k starter savings allowance. Her tax code for 25/26 is C1131N and she has utilised her personal allowance and withdrawn £11,310 from her crystallised DC pension pot. However, she's been taxed £187 in tax when I…
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Late Pension Payments
Hi all my first post. I work in local government. I have two pension pots, one in my current employer, one in my old employer. The issue is that I decided to retire in early April, the new tax year. I understand my current employer wont start the process of sorting my pension until I retire but the problem is my old…
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First Drawdown
So. In April I will be drawing down around 25k per year for the first year. Had a phone call with the company and I advised I wanted 25k for the upcoming year taken from drawdown pot.(TFLS taken allready) went through various questions and got to the end , he advised as my first withdrawal would be taxed at emergency tax…
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NHS Pension - early retirement work out?
Hi there My partner works for the NHS and is a member of 1995 and 2015 schemes respectively. We are just wanting to find out how to get projections of if she wants to retire early but are finding it incredibly difficult to work out how to do this. Understand that the 1995 scheme is normal retirement age of 60 and the 12015…
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Ltd Company Director SIPP Contributions
I am the sole shareholder of my limited company and the company currently pays £60,000 per year into my SIPP and all my carry back allowance has been utilised. Can my company pay in more than the £60,000 allowance and simply not get the corporation tax deduction? Or do I face a tax charge as the employee? Or am I simply…
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It's no brainer to consolidate my pensions into Fidelity or other cheaper SIPP?
Hi fellow members, I’ve more or less made up my mind to retire once both of my sons have finished university. My pension + ISA is about 1.7m. I have several pension accounts from previous employments. My current workplace pension with Fidelity is very flexible, and the only charges at the moment are the fund management…
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Pension and Isa strategy
Hi all Just thought I'd get some wider thoughts on my current thinking. As background, I'm 40ish, earn £260k per year including bonus, have £400k in a DC pension and £130k in S&s Isa. I am married and my wife earns approx £13k, and in enrolled on a LGPS scheme. Our Isa number above is our combined total. I'm starting to…
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Civil Service DB Pension Input Amount Calc for 25/26
Suppose I had a 30k pa alpha entitlement accrued as at Apr 25 and made no additional contributions. Sep 24 CPI was 1.7% Sep 25 CPI was 3.8% Have I got a pia of 16x(30k*1.038-30k*1.017) = £10,880 which far exceeds my annual allowance with zero income of £3600?! Edit - I didn't make no contributions, I worked the first 2…
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Can I withdraw my TPS pension as an active USS member
I am 57 and currently an active USS member. I had been with TPS for nearly 20 years before I moved to my current employer and joined USS, becoming a deferred member of TPS. In my TPS statement, there are two options: one is the final salary scheme NPA (60), the other is a hybrid scheme of partially NPA(60) and partially…
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Job change-pensions advice?
hiya. Early retired with an ill health pension in ‘17. Been working since NI up to date and due a full state pension. 52 now and embarking on a new career with stagecoach as a bus driver. I understand they’re pension recently changed but don’t know much about it. Looking to work 15 more years but concerned about my best…
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£60,000 a year pension cap
Hi reading the .Gov website its say 1 can put upto 3 years of £60,000 into your pension however you have to be earning over that amount with very high earners also reduced to that amount - my wages are only 35,000 not sure as it's not stated on the .Gov website how 1 goes about adding as I am allready trying to have…
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Tax code notice query
Hoping this is the correct place to post… I've POA for my elderly father (who also now has dementia). I've just picked up his tax code notice paperwork for the coming tax year 26/7 and a few aspects I don't fully understand. His state pension on the notice is shown as £14,028, yet on his online HMRC account it's actually…
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Accruing DB - other supporting options?
Hi, My partner and I are in our mid 30s. As of April, we'll have jointly accrued just under £30k DB pa, all linked to SPA (Alpha). Going forward we'll be jointly accruing just over £3k pa, all else equal. Our minimum retirement target is the NMPA, though we'd like to achieve FI earlier to create more options. Looking…
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Cash in or not
I have 4 pensions. I can access my state pension in Nov 2026. I am considering taking the tax free lump sums from 2 of my pensions to help pay for an extension to our property. My thoughts are that this a better idea than getting a loan to pay for the extension. Am I correct?
Got questions about boosting your state pension by checking your record with the Future Pension Centre and making voluntary National Insurance contributions?
748 discussions
6.5K comments
Most recent: NI years are now full, existing OAP, when should I expect my monthly payments to reflect this? by Dazed_and_C0nfused
22 May at 1:38PM
