Civil Service Alpha Added Pension Calculator - Wrong?

Bravepants

Hello,

I wonder if anyone here is paying Added Pension in the Alpha scheme?

I think the 2018 calculator provided on the MyCSP site is incorrect.

Compared to last year's calculator my monthly payment seems to get me double the Added Pension!

Would it please be possible for someone to double check this?

I have emailed MyCSP about the issue.

Brynsam

Bravepants wrote: »

Hello,
I have emailed MyCSP about the issue.

Probably best to wait for their reply - hopefully that will be the definitive answer.

Bravepants

Brynsam wrote: »

Probably best to wait for their reply - hopefully that will be the definitive answer.

Indeed. I thought I would post here though just incase someone on the forums has started contributing this year based on the calculator's result, and is expecting more than they will actually get.

Zypher

Just sent you a private message.
Did you get a reply as the calulator seams very broken to me paying £10 per month in 2019 for 1 year will give less pension then pay £10 per month for 1 year in 2023.

Also the return pension gained would totally repay the total amount paid in the contact within 5.77 years of retirement.... way too good to be true.

OldBeanz

Good luck with MyCSP. They are notorious for being "not very efficient".

Zypher

Yeah I tried calling them first and got no where with them just keep referring to the online calculator.

Ideally if there's anyone who is buying alpha added pension they will have the accrewal rate on the and. So if anyone knows what the accrewal rate is that would be great. I know it's 2.32% if pensionable earnings for the Mann pension.

Bravepants

I talked to my HR department about the issue and my pensions representative eventually got this response from MyCSP:

[FONT=Calibri,sans-serif]"I can confirm that the original calculator completed [your staff member] was correct, with the estimated added pension purchased over 5 years, based on a contribution rate of £282.00 per month, being £1,746.00 per annum. This is based on the added pension commending 01/04/2018. Please note that this is an estimate only, as factors may change and therefore the accrual of the added pension will differ. When calculating the estimated amount added pension the member may be credited if contributions are paid for a number of years, the calculator multiples the amount of added pension purchased in year 1 by the length of time the member is choosing to pay for (ie, if for 1 year £100.00 would be purchased, and a member wants to pay for 6 years, the calculator will estimate the amount of added pension purchased after the 6 years to be £600.00).

The second calculator completed by the member, which provided an estimated annual added pension after 4 years of contributions at a rate of £282.00 of £2,855.00 was incorrect and this has been raised to our scheme compliance unit for review to ensure any errors on the calculator are resolved. "[/FONT]
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[FONT=Calibri,sans-serif]So there IS an error in the March2018 calculator. Quite a significant one eh?[/FONT]
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Zypher

I am really surprised this has not been rectified and I think anyone who uses the 2018 calculator could have a verifiable claim of pension mis selling.

Bravepants

The answer I got on the phone, when I had previously phoned MyCSP directly, was that I could check what pension I would get by checking the annual statement. But of course by then I would have made a year or so's contributions! A bit after the fact!

I don't think the person on the phone quite got what I was on about, and there was no hint of the person wanting to raise the issue further within MyCSP.

It might be a good idea for you to talk to your own pension person at your work and raise the issue with him/her. They should have more clout with MyCSP on behalf of your department to ensure that this issue gets resolved. The more people that shout up the better.

The only reason spotted the problem was that I had started contributions based on the 2017 calculator, which is correct (according to MyCSP anyway!), and I just happened to do a consistency check with the new calculator that came out in March 2018.

Having found the problem I thought it might be good to raise it on this forum. Glad I did.

Zypher

I sent my csp a e-mail with a link to this thread explaining the issues with the calculator, not heard back but now the calculator has been removed from the csp website stating it is currently under review

uclown2002

Zypher wrote: »

Just sent you a private message.
Did you get a reply as the calulator seams very broken to me paying £10 per month in 2019 for 1 year will give less pension then pay £10 per month for 1 year in 2023.

Also the return pension gained would totally repay the total amount paid in the contact within 5.77 years of retirement.... way too good to be true.

How many years would it need to be to still make it attractive?


I'm joining Alpha in 2019 from Classic for my last 4 and a bit years and am seriously considering adding to it.