NHS Pensions: What is what?

atush

It really depends on if you intend to retire early- or not.

If you do, buying additional pension, then having it reduced by taking your pension early wont give you the best value?

dutchcloggie

Ah, yes, good point. I will get my NHS pension at 67. If I want to retire early, should I avoid the AVC and go for a lump sum payment instead, say, at 64? I don't know if I will retire early (but I suspect I will if possible).

Manxman_in_exile

Your NHS trust should(?) be able to put you in touch with someone who should be able to help explain to you (in plain English) what the NHS pension scheme options are. This person will be called "Pension liaison officer" or something like that. Depending on whether your trust's payroll is in-house or out-sourced they may be employed directly by the trust or their payroll provider. (Ask your manager, or HR, or you ought to have a payroll contact anyway).


Please note that this Pension liaison officer will not be able to advise you as to what best to do - they are not regulated to do so. But what they should be able to do is to explain to you what NHS options are available to you, and hopefully this will help you with your decision.


EDIT: I'm not sure if I follow you about increasing the lump sum payment? I would have thought you'd be better off by maximising the annual pension payment rather than the lump sum? But I may be misunderstanding you.


Personally, I would have thought that any NHS option would be better than any private option. That was certainly true when I left 5 years ago, but I'm not familiar with current scheme (I was in the 1995 scheme) so I may well be wrong now.

Manxman_in_exile

The edit para is meant to be at the end of the previous post