Is it worth sticking with the Civil Service for the Pension at my age?

smileypigface

Would be grateful for any advice - to my shame I am a complete Pensions numpty!

I am 41 (ssshhhh!) and have worked full time for the Civil Service for the last 23 years - I have about 21 years reckonable service (couple of bouts of maternity leave).

Having joined at the lowest grade there is, I have taken the last 23 years to rise up to the level I am at now - and although I could realistically rise another one or two steps, to be honest I'm not sure I would want the additional hassle for not very much more salary.

I feel committed to stay for another 8 years until my youngest child reaches 18 - having put money away for his further education if required. But on the other hand the thought of staying that long scares me rigid.

I find myself, like lots of my colleagues, without any skills or qualifications that are easily transferrable to the 'outside' world - so what I could do instead is quite a tricky question.

But, the point of thinking about it now is that I have 8 years to take part-time courses (I don't know what in at the moment!) to qualify myself to do something different.

However, what should I do with my pension - with 8 years to plan ahead I wondered if it would be worth me making AVCs - would that increase my benefits if I leave with 29 reckonable years?

Or, am I mad to consider leaving at that point and should just resign myself to pushing for the further 2 promotions and sitting it out to the 40 year point for the pension? This is my least favoured option on the basis that life should be for living!

I am on the Civil Service Classic Pension scheme and my basic salary is about £35K

Any advice would be gratefully received.

Thanks

john.xs

sorry i cant offer much advice but want to acknowledge that you are not alone . my position is almost the same as yours but i work in health service and am on 10k less. for my own m. health i want out but cant see a way of transferring skills either.talk aboutt wishing your life away. the only way i keep going is acknowledging that 1000s of others are worst off. good luck with whatever you decide to do.

KathysBoy

smileypigface wrote: »

Would be grateful for any advice - to my shame I am a complete Pensions numpty!

I am 41 (ssshhhh!) and have worked full time for the Civil Service for the last 23 years - I have about 21 years reckonable service (couple of bouts of maternity leave).

Having joined at the lowest grade there is, I have taken the last 23 years to rise up to the level I am at now - and although I could realistically rise another one or two steps, to be honest I'm not sure I would want the additional hassle for not very much more salary.

I feel committed to stay for another 8 years until my youngest child reaches 18 - having put money away for his further education if required. But on the other hand the thought of staying that long scares me rigid.

I find myself, like lots of my colleagues, without any skills or qualifications that are easily transferrable to the 'outside' world - so what I could do instead is quite a tricky question.

But, the point of thinking about it now is that I have 8 years to take part-time courses (I don't know what in at the moment!) to qualify myself to do something different.

However, what should I do with my pension - with 8 years to plan ahead I wondered if it would be worth me making AVCs - would that increase my benefits if I leave with 29 reckonable years?

Or, am I mad to consider leaving at that point and should just resign myself to pushing for the further 2 promotions and sitting it out to the 40 year point for the pension? This is my least favoured option on the basis that life should be for living!

I am on the Civil Service Classic Pension scheme and my basic salary is about £35K

Any advice would be gratefully received.

Thanks

I'd like to make 2 points .

Firstly your pension. The Civil Service pension is a very good pension scheme, and you are unlikley to be able to replicate in a future job, unless of course you find another civil service job (and why not). You won't of course lose it, and it will rise by the lower of inflation or RPI until you draw it (unless you transfer it somewhere) I think there is a balance between emotional and financial happiness, and if you are unhappy then I would definitely start looking for another job (see below). You need to work out your potential future financial situation to help you decide. In other words, your financial position if you stay, and your financial position if you leave (assuming a worst case scenario) and whether this will be okay for you. This will also help you decide what type of other job you need.

Secondly as you work for the civil service you should be familiar with skills and competencies assessment, and therefore fully aware of your own individual competencies. Do NOT undersestimate the skills you have nor the transferabilty of those skills to the outside world. You need to think outside the box (sorry for the terminology !), and think about what you have done (examples) and what that means when companies advertise for staff. Do not be put off by fancy management speak language in job adverts. As someone who has worked in both the public and private sector, and done more than my fair share of recruitment I can tell you that the people who make the best impression at interviews in terms of competencies are those who are prepared. This means when you ask them for an example they immediately start telling you., This is all about preparation. When my daughter left university we sat down and came up with loads of examples of her competencies (and its much more difficult to relate them from an educational background rather than work experiences). The best way to do this is too think of about 10 things you have done in your lfe which you are proud of, write them down (this makes you feel good about yourself), and then relate them to job competencies. For example giving up smoking is a good out of office example of focus. Sorry, didn't mean to turn it into a lecture, but people really underestimate their abilities.

swiss69

You are probably not going to get a similar salary in a different job for which you have no experience or training.

Your pension really is like gold dust at the moment and whilst you may be unhappy, there is no guarantee that you would like another job any more. The way I view jobs is look at the benefits before you look at the negatives.

weekend work - Yes/No
No Evenings - Yes/No
Flexi Hours - Yes/No
Pension Sche - Yes/No
Sick pay yes/No
Holidays - More than 25/NO
Colleagues - good/bad

More good than bad for me indicates a good job

I had a job where I had to work Saturdays with Thursday off. What use is that? I hated it.

On £35,000 if you stay for those extra say 11 years, that would be the equivalent of around £4800 extra pension per year and a lump sum of over £15,000.

To get that in a private fund and for it to be indexed linked you would need a private pension fund of around £120,000

However if you leave you will still have a frozen pension of over £13,000 per year and if you think that will be enough and you want to do something different then just go for it. Like you say Life is for living!

jamie304

I'm not sure what it is you do exactly, but working in other sectors e.g. Univeristy admin is likely to secure you an equally good pension.