Clueless on Pensions - Civil Service Alpha or Partnership?

Bravepants

AK92 wrote: »

Perhaps a stupid question (and sorry to hijack an old thread) but assuming OP builds up £19.2k and decides to retire at the mandated age of 68, not the early age, they would get £19.2k a year?

I knew the Alpha Pension was good, but that seems alot of money compared to the 5% or so they pay out of their gross wages for pension contributions per month (this is what comes out of my civil service payslip, so debating the merits of sticking with or not)

Thanks

I pay 7% or so of my salary in, but my organisation also pays something like 22%!

Nanglo_2

I have an Alpha civil service pension. I'd like to top it up by paying £80 per month extra. Will that mean £100 as I get a tax relief from my employer? I'm a basic rate tax payer. Thanks for your help.

kidmugsy

Even the Civil Service may not offer DB schemes for ever. Seize this chance of entering one. If such schemes are scrapped in (say) 20 years time you'll be glad you did join because you'll have deferred benefits that will be unreplaceably good value.

hugheskevi

I have an Alpha civil service pension. I'd like to top it up by paying £80 per month extra. Will that mean £100 as I get a tax relief from my employer? I'm a basic rate tax payer. Thanks for your help.

Yes, but be careful how you complete the forms. You have a variety of ways to 'top-up' the pension:

(1) Additional Voluntary Contributions
(2) Added Pension
(3) EPA (reduce the age at which you can take alpha unreduced)

In all cases, the additional amount you contribute will be deducted by a process referred to as 'net pay arrangement.' This means the contribution is deducted from your gross pay, before income tax is applied. Hence if you wish to contribute £100, that is the amount you state on forms as your desired contribution. You then have £100 deducted from salary prior to tax, and hence pay £20 less income tax, resulting in a net cost of £80.

This is different to the other main method of making pension contributions, referred to as 'relief at source' whereby contributions are taken from salary after income tax is deducted, and the pension provider adds basic rate tax automatically.

Nanglo_2

Thanks for your help.

IrishHurricane

Any "advice" would be really helpful....I`m 58 and opted in to the alpha scheme in October 2017.I had no pension whatsoever until now due to being self employed and working various short term contracts throughout the years.My salary is £24k.I plan on retiring in 6 years time.Should I stay in the scheme or opt out?

p00hsticks

IrishHurricane wrote: »

Any "advice" would be really helpful....I`m 58 and opted in to the alpha scheme in October 2017.I had no pension whatsoever until now due to being self employed and working various short term contracts throughout the years.My salary is £24k.I plan on retiring in 6 years time.Should I stay in the scheme or opt out?

stay in ! You will struggle to get anything remotely comparable

Dazed_and_confused

It would genuinely be of interest to all that comment on these type of questions if you could explain why you think opting out is something to consider?

Dazed_and_confused

My salary is £24k.I plan on retiring in 6 years time.Should I stay in the scheme or opt out?

How would plan on replacing the £3.3k annual pension you would be giving up?

IrishHurricane

Like the op, I'm clueless about pensions and don't know how my benefits get worked out. Is it really as simple as £470 *7/12=£275 per month with no lump sum?