Civil Service Pensions

hyubh

new2allthis wrote: »

I believe I have 2 LGPS pots. I worked continuously in local gov from 1999 to 2005, albeit for 2 authorities. I asked for (but have no idea if it ever happened) my pension with the first council to be transferred to the second council

Surely whether there was an 'interfund' transfer or not is clear from the annual benefit statements received since? If it did happen, then you would be receiving only one statement for the period, from the second administering authority, and this will show reckonable service from 1999. Conversely, if you have been in receipt of two separate annual benefit statements for the period, then clearly the earlier service wasn't transferred.

I doubt I would have asked for it to be transferred in 2007 because my salary was less at that point than it was when I left in 2005.

So, you have been receiving two LGPS annual benefit statements...?

What is the CARE scheme?

Changes introduced in April 2014 for the LGPS in England and Wales, April 2015 for other public sector schemes. Benefits on membership before the relevant date are unaffected however.

Silvertabby

New2allthis - it sounds like your LGPS benefits are spread over 2 local authorities. You have a deferred benefit statement form your last LGPS employer, so be sure to keep this safe. You should also have an annual statement from your first LGPS employer - but unless you specifically ask for a paper statement, they may assume that you are happy to get this from your on-line record.

You can tell Civil Service pensions that you have 2 lots of LGPS benefits (you'll need to identify the local authorities) that you may wish to transfer to the Civil Service. They will then tell you how much Civil Service pension these benefits will buy. You will then be able to compare the Civil Service quote against your 2 LGPS statements and decide if you want to go ahead or not. You wouldn't have to transfer both - you could just transfer across your latest LGPS benefits, and leave the original one to take as a pension from age 60, even if you are still working.

First thing to do would be to confirm the exact status of your LGPS benefits.

BobQ

Silvertabby wrote: »

New2allthis - it sounds like your LGPS benefits are spread over 2 local authorities. You have a deferred benefit statement form your last LGPS employer, so be sure to keep this safe. You should also have an annual statement from your first LGPS employer - but unless you specifically ask for a paper statement, they may assume that you are happy to get this from your on-line record.

You can tell NHS pensions that you have 2lots of LGPS benefits (you'll need to identify the local authorities) that you may wish to transfer to the NHS. They will then tell you how much NHS pension these benefits will buy. You will then be able to compare the NHS quote against your 2 LGPS statements and decide if you want to go ahead or not. You wouldn't have to transfer both - you could just transfer across your latest LGPS benefits, and leave the original one to take as a pension from age 60, even if you are still working.

First thing to do would be to confirm the exact status of your LGPS benefits.

What has the NHS to do with this. The OP is now in the Civil Service.

BobQ

new2allthis wrote: »

I've just joined the Civil Service at the age of 42 and have to decide between the Alpha and Partnership schemes. I have 2 local government pension pots (I think). I don't understand any of it and have no idea which CS scheme to choose - although my first pay slip (which came through before the bumpf telling me I needed to choose a scheme) has Alpha on it.

Where can I go for independent help on any of this?

I need advice to choose between the CS schemes and understand the implications of that decision but also help to understand what I've already got.

The pensions team for my last local gov pension scheme refused to talk to me as they "don't give advice". I didn't want advice, I just wanted information because I'd not received a pension statement in years. Occasionally, I got a letter saying they couldn't send me a statement that year, but that was it. I finally got a statement after I left, but it might as well be written in Martian! Now I need someone to explain to me what it means, not advice on what to do with it (well, not till I've got my head round it anyway).

Does the Money Advice Service help with this stuff or is there another, equivalent service that deals with pensions?

OP, You can only get advice from an Independent Financial Advisor. There is a difference between advice on the financial choices you make (eg to join Alpha or Partnership) and information. The Scheme Administrator should be willing to explain what the annual benefit statement means as that is not advice.

So you can pay for a IFA or you can get some help here. If you are a member of a Trade Union they will have pension representatives that can help to locate information (but not advice) and the TU will provide some free help from an IFA up to a point. But most IFAs will give some help for free.

https://www.unbiased.co.uk/

You have some good suggestions on the Alpha/Partnership choice. My view is that if you plan to spend several years in the Civil Service Alpha is the best choice. You pay more into it, but your employer also pays more into it than the maximum you can contribute under Partnership. While it does not follow that paying more in to any pension means you get more out of it, it is an indication.

The Alpha pension is guaranteed (ie not a cash fund) and inflation linked. Partnership means you build up a personal fund invested in stocks and shares. If you plan to move to a Private Sector job I say two years Partnership would be more flexible. Of course that does not mean that a Partnership fund could not outperform Alpha.

You need to understand what you have got (two LGPS as I understand it). You need this to see if transferring it to the Alpha Scheme makes sense which it may not.

The pension statement you have needs to be checked for accuracy. Has it got the start and end dates right? The number of years in the scheme? The final salary? The final salary is relevant for a pension that started before 2014. Around then you will have transferred to the CARE scheme which may be in a separate pension statement. The most recent part of the pension (CARE) involves buying a bit of pension each year based on salary/accrual rate (ie salary/49)

CARE is explained in
https://www.yourpension.org.uk/LPFA/LGPS-2014/How-is-my-pension-calculated.aspx

Silvertabby

What has the NHS to do with this. The OP is now in the Civil Service. Posted by BobQ

Good spot! I've corrected my post.

altocumulus

If you are a member of a Union they should be able to provide some basic advice ?

xylophone

You may prefer not to transfer your LGPS benefits to the Civil Service, just in case you should ever want to transfer your deferred DB benefits from LGPS to a DC Scheme - this would not be permitted from a DB Civil Service Scheme.

I asked for (but have no idea if it ever happened) my pension with the first council to be transferred to the second council, as my job at the latter had a much higher salary.

It would have been advisable to check this at the time.



With regard to your deferred LGPS benefits, your first step must surely be to establish whether they are all with your second LGPS employer ( ie that a transfer from the the first to the second employer did take place), or with the first and the second employer ( ie that the transfer did not take place)?

kidmugsy

altocumulus wrote: »

If you are a member of a Union they should be able to provide some basic advice ?

Every time I see this remark I remember the utter uselessness of my own union on this issue. And on almost all others, come to that.

mgdavid

Have you tried asking colleagues?
Surely not everyone working in the Public Sector is completely ignorant about their pensions?

hyubh

mgdavid wrote: »

Have you tried asking colleagues?
Surely not everyone working in the Public Sector is completely ignorant about their pensions?

I wouldn't recommend that, even if they were knowledgeable (a little knowledge can be dangerous and all that). Better the OP get their own house in order first - it can't be that hard to find or figure out what LGPS memberships have been combined and which haven't. If it is, then the initial question (Alpha or Partnership?) seems to have an obvious answer - go with Alpha as the DB option, since maximising Partnership as the DC one will involve taking an interest in pension matters that the OP doesn't particularly have (nothing wrong with that by the way).