late entrant to Alpha

cymraescaerdydd

Ive just joined the civil service after many years in the NHS- Im not transferring in NHS pension. I cant make head or tail of the Alpha advice or model what pension Im likely to get. I plan to work for a further 4 years to my state retirement age, but as I have other pensions, might go earlier if any grandchildren come along. Any suggestion how I can work out my likely pension from this scheme after 2,3 and 4 years? thanks

Thrugelmir

Rough guide and ignoring inflationary rises. Take 2.32% of your annual pensionable salary for each year.

Dazed_and_confused

There was a very long thread recently in response to a post from someone who was considering leaving Alpha.

If you can find a better pension, without becoming an MP, please let us know.

If you are earning an average'ish UK salary of £25,000 you will be accruing an annual pension of £580.

So after 4 years you will have accrued, allowing for inflation and a small pay rise approx £2,400/year when you are 67 or 68.

Not a fortune but not bad for just 4 years service.

hugheskevi

Im not transferring in NHS pension.

This will mean your pre-2015 pension ceases to be linked to salary, and your post-2015 (if any) pension will not receive the 1.5% increase over inflation awarded to active members.

I plan to work for a further 4 years to my state retirement age

So you are about age 62, are you sure you are not entitled to transitional protection to remain in a pre-2015 scheme?

Any suggestion how I can work out my likely pension from this scheme after 2,3 and 4 years?

Salary * 4.64%, Salary * 6.96% and salary * 9.28% respectively.

If you can find a better pension, without becoming an MP,

Alpha is quite considerably better than the MPs post 2015 pension scheme.

Andy_L

Dazed_and_confused wrote: »

If you can find a better pension, without becoming an MP, please let us know.

The MP's pension scheme is not as good as Alpha. It has a slightly lower accrual rate and higher employee contributions

Dazed_and_confused

The MP's pension scheme is not as good as Alpha. It has a slightly lower accrual rate and higher employee contributions

I will have to give up my attempts at becoming an MP then and try for the civil service

jamesperrett

hugheskevi wrote: »

So you are about age 62, are you sure you are not entitled to transitional protection to remain in a pre-2015 scheme?

Doesn't that only apply to those who were existing members when the changes were made? I thought that all new members would go straight onto Alpha no matter how old they were (but I could be wrong).

hugheskevi

Doesn't that only apply to those who were existing members when the changes were made? I thought that all new members would go straight onto Alpha no matter how old they were (but I could be wrong).

In this case the member had 'many years' in the NHS prior to joining the Civil Service.

If a member is in service in any of the main public service pension schemes as at 31st March 2012 and 31st March 2015, and qualifies for protection in both the scheme they are leaving and would have qualified for protection in the scheme they are joining they benefit from protection.

Given the information and dates provided, I would expect the OP to be eligible for at least tapered protection to remain in a pre-2015 scheme until about 2021.

The document at this link gives the details, eg, on page 10.