Royal Mail Pension Question

Spadger42

Hello all, yes I’m ok on my state pension I get a full amount as I’ve overpaid. I’ve just written to the Royal Mail Pension and asked them for a full new breakdown and asked why my pension has not increased by the CPI. I’ve checked the last ten years CPI and added this to my £7500 quote I had in 2007 and that adds upto £9225 a year and I’ve still got 8 or so years left in it to increase. I appreciate all your comments and advice, I will await the response to see if it is frozen and if so what I must do to ensure I’ve enough to live on in old age.
Thank you all for your help.

xylophone

what I must do to ensure I!!!8217;ve enough to live on in old age.

Are you currently contributing to a pension?

DaveyJa

Hi.
I was medically discharged from the royal mail in 2004.
I'm 55 and want to draw or cash in my pension as my last annual statement was less than what it was in 2000 when I still had 4 years of service left.
I can invest it better. 
I have contacted the scheme, telling them what I want to do.
This was on 13th January.  5 phone calls later and 1 letter all I have received is a letter stating the deductions I will get if I draw it but still no figures as in the total value of the pension. 
I was on POPS for 10 years most of which time I worked for cashco which was a slightly better salary than letters.
I also transferred a pension from General Acsident and Liverpool Victoria into the scheme in 1996.
I'm now stuck a little frustrated with the lack of help from the Royal mail 

xylophone

I'm 55 and want to draw or cash in my pension as my last annual statement was less than what it was in 2000 when I still had 4 years of service left.

This doesn't make sense - see

https://www.royalmailpensionplan.co.uk/section-c/leaving-scheme/deferred-benefits

While your benefits earned before 1 April 2018 remain in the RMPP, we’ll increase them each year if there is inflation. The measure of inflation your benefits are linked to is called the Consumer Prices Index (CPI).

See above also re applying to draw your pension.

Have you completed the necessary application forms to draw the pension?

Mrbeethoven

I'm puzzled by what Daveyja says, unless there has been some mistake.

I left Royal Mail early 2008, after 30 years, with 8 years to go before reaching the normal retirement age of 60 (as it was at that time).

At the time I left I received a pension statement telling me my deferred pension was worth c£18.5k per year, plus a tax-free lump sum of 3 times that amount, and that both would be increased each year with inflation. I then received a statement each year telling me how much inflation had been and showing an increased level of deferred pension. When I reached 60 my pension started at a rate of somewhere north of £22k. Four years later I am receiving £24k per year and this will very soon be increased by the annual rate of CPI as it was some months ago (sometime in Q4 last year I think).

At no point did I ever receive anything showing a reduction.

Unless the post above was referring to an AVC scheme (which does not seem to be the case), rather than the DB scheme, then there must surely have been a mistake?

Could the poster have been working reduced hours in those last few years before being medically retired? I don't know if that somehow has a detrimental effect on the value of a DB pension.

dasherman

DaveyJa said:

Hi.
I was medically discharged from the royal mail in 2004.
I'm 55 and want to draw or cash in my pension as my last annual statement was less than what it was in 2000 when I still had 4 years of service left.
I can invest it better. 
I have contacted the scheme, telling them what I want to do.
This was on 13th January.  5 phone calls later and 1 letter all I have received is a letter stating the deductions I will get if I draw it but still no figures as in the total value of the pension. 
I was on POPS for 10 years most of which time I worked for cashco which was a slightly better salary than letters.
I also transferred a pension from General Acsident and Liverpool Victoria into the scheme in 1996.
I'm now stuck a little frustrated with the lack of help from the Royal mail 

I'm a current employee of Royal Mail and have been since the 1980's!

It sounds to me as if you've been trying to get a Cash Equivalent Transfer Value(CETV)?

All pension accrued upto 31st March 2012 was transferred to what is now known as the Royal Mail Statutory Pension Scheme, as part of the privatisation of the company. The majority of those benefits are now paid for by the government / UK taxpayers.

It is not possible to transfer out RMSPS benefits as cash into a DC pension scheme. It is covered on the RMSPS website: https://www.royalmailsps.co.uk/im-not-receiving-my-pension-yet/i-want-to-transfer-my-benefits

Mrbeethoven

I suspect dasherman may be right, especially given "but still no figures as in the total value of the pension."

As you cannot transfer out of RMSPS I'm not sure "total value" has any relevance. The relevant numbers, as shown in the statements I received each year between leaving Royal Mail and starting to take my pension, were annual pension and tax-free lump sum. I don't recall ever seeing "total value" and didn't expect to as it was irrelevant. Maybe it is relevant at the time of starting to take the pension when, I believe, they use a multiplier to calculate a value in order to tell you what percentage of the lifetime allowance has been used up but I don't think it was a figure I was given. I think I was just given the % of lifetime allowance used.

glyn4

I am 55 have 30 years in my pension pot ,I'm full time, I am aiming to take my pension at about 58, I don't want to take the lump sum , just the pension does anyone have a rough approximation, of what my monthly pension would be 

eskbanker

glyn4 said:

I am 55 have 30 years in my pension pot ,I'm full time, I am aiming to take my pension at about 58, I don't want to take the lump sum , just the pension does anyone have a rough approximation, of what my monthly pension would be 

Yes - the pension administrators will have sufficient information to be able to offer a meaningful answer to a question like that....

Brynsam

glyn4 said:

I am 55 have 30 years in my pension pot ,I'm full time, I am aiming to take my pension at about 58, I don't want to take the lump sum , just the pension does anyone have a rough approximation, of what my monthly pension would be 

What you're earning might just be a key part of answering this...but as suggested above, the scheme's administrators are the only ones who can help.