Do I transfer my civil service pension to my nhs pension?

Devondebbie

Hi. I've got a classic pension with the civil service, from 1987 to 2009 (nearly 22 years) and I joined the NHS pension in March 2010. Do I leave my civil service pension as it is, or should I transfer it to my new nhs pension? I really don't know what to do! Help!

Andy_L

Hello, are you me?, that's pretty much my career history :-)

Fill in the paperwork to get the transfer quotation. Your CS pension will buy you more than 22 years pension service in the NHS (as the Classic scheme is better than the current NHS scheme) but will ignore any salary change between the 2 jobs

The question then is what do you think will happen with your salary. If you leave the CS pension where it is it will increase with RPI each year. If you transfer it it will increase with NHS salary progression. Which is best depneds on where you are in the NHS pay scale & what your career progression is likely to be.

DiggerUK

Would advise leaving as is.
Reason being, if you ever go back you can just continue with pension. As a new starter/returner it may be disallowed in future.
No financial loss leaving them separate either.