Railway Pension Scheme V CARE - financial adviser

samscash

Would anyone be able to recommend a person who can advise me whether I should take up the option of joining the Railway pension scheme v the CARE scheme on the basis I have around 10 years left to retirement?


thanks

xylophone

http://www.mynrpension.co.uk/media/5689/nr-pensions-key-features-april-2016.pdf

Are you "a new employee who
was a member of another
Section of the RPS immediately
before starting work with
Network Rail"

so that you are eligible to join RPS 65?

You may find link below of assistance if you need an IFA.

http://www.thepfs.org/yourmoney/find-an-adviser/

samscash

I am a new employee but after 5 years I can join the RPS scheme, I am just not sure if I should

xylophone

I am a new employee but after 5 years I can join the RPS scheme, I am just not sure if I should

You can think about that at the time? And does your union assist with pension queries?

hyubh

samscash wrote: »

whether I should take up the option of joining the Railway pension scheme v the CARE scheme

A few considerations:
- Are these both sections of the broader RPS, or is the CARE scheme your employer's own? (The RPS as a collective of various sub-schemes can be considered almost as safe as a large LGPS fund, even though it's formally private sector - a particular employer 'doing a BHS' won't lead to the PPF. The same might not hold if the CARE scheme is completely separate however.)
- What are the respective accrual rates, and for the CARE scheme, what is the revaluation rate for active members?
- Do different pension increase rates apply for the different schemes?
- What is your anticipated future career progression in terms of pay?

samscash

” A few considerations:
- Are these both sections of the broader RPS, or is the CARE scheme your employer's own? (The RPS as a collective of various sub-schemes can be considered almost as safe as a large LGPS fund, even though it's formally private sector - a particular employer 'doing a BHS' won't lead to the PPF. The same might not hold if the CARE scheme is completely separate however.) - The CARE scheme is part of Network Rail but will need to find out
- What are the respective accrual rates, and for the CARE scheme, what is the revaluation rate for active members? - no idea will find out
- Do different pension increase rates apply for the different schemes? - Yes, as do contribution rates. I think RPS is less
- What is your anticipated future career progression in terms of pay? - at this point of my career and age, unlikely for much more increase. What concerns me about RPS is that I think that the final value is based upon the last year of working and actually as I get older, I may choose to work longer but doing a shorter week, which may or may not be possible.


However I think under RPS that would be a huge disadvantage - I think

PensionTech

I may choose to work longer but doing a shorter week, which may or may not be possible.

However I think under RPS that would be a huge disadvantage - I think

Common misconception. Most (I would say all, but there's always the chance of there being some ridiculous scheme out there) final salary schemes work on the basis of your full-time equivalent salary. The pension is calculated using your salary, service and accrual rate, and it's usually the service that gets adjusted if you go part-time (e.g. if you have ten years full time and 5 years working a 50% week, your service will work out at 12.5 years). The salary used in the calculation remains at the full-time level. So unless you actually take a demotion in the years leading up to retirement, the final salary scheme won't suffer any more from going part-time than a CARE scheme would.