deferred RM pension - lump sum guestimate ?

deejaybee

Hi,

Have a deferred Royal Mail pension, with normal retirement age of 60.

I am planning on taking this at 55 with maximum lump sum, and wanted to know if there is a standard formula for working out what lump sum would be in ££££, or if it varies scheme by scheme.

Latest statement I got very recently..

Figures as at 31 March 2013 ( Section C )

Basic Annual Pension - 2571.72

plus annual pension supplement( payable until state pension age ) - 586.88


plus pension increase amount - 341.13 ( this figure increased by about £72 from previous year )

Current value of annual pension 3499.73


I only worked there for nearly 5 years, but transferred a couple of small occupational pensions in, and a small personal pension, which brought my service up to around 11 years...

I will be 53 in November, I know that I will take a 25% hit by taking it at 55, but have weighed it all up and its the way I want to go. Have been self employed for few years now ( left RM in 2009 ) and will probably keep on working till 65 at least.

So is there a way of extrapolating lump sum amount from pension value - I know that I have another couple of years of probable small increases to pension amount, but that wont change figures a whole lot.

I don't know what happens to the pension supplement, presumably that is reduced also as I would obviously have an extra 5 years of getting it before state pension age...

Nearly forgot, have small AVC fund with Royal Mail .... only worth about a bag I think, but would take that as a lump sum in its entirety, which would preserve a small amount of the main pension.