Tory Civil Service Reforms

mapleoak

So the Tories have already said they are targeting reform in the Civil Service - which I realise will go down very well with some. Ignoring the politics for a moment - given I would have almost 39 years of CS pension - almost all in Classic - would I be able to take a redundancy package if my organisation offered it AND then take my pension and lump sum a year or two later? Or doesn’t it work that way?

hugheskevi

So the Tories have already said they are targeting reform in the Civil Service

I have not read that the reforms involve cutting numbers of staff.

would I be able to take a redundancy package if my organisation offered it

There are 3 types of paid exit - voluntary exit, voluntary redundancy and compulsory redundancy.

You can apply for any scheme your employer may run, and may or may not be accepted for the scheme.

Your organisation would be likely to be offer voluntary exit first. The terms of that are very flexible, whereas terms for voluntary redundancy are fixed.

would I be able to take a redundancy package if my organisation offered it AND then take my pension and lump sum a year or two later?

All schemes would offer a cash lump sum, although the amount may be different under each type of exit.

Voluntary redundancy would offer you an unreduced pension payable immediately (assuming you are aged over 55). Voluntary exit may offer you this. If the cost of providing this is lower than your cash lump sum entitlement you would receive the difference as a cash lump sum. If the the cost is higher then you would not receive a cash lump sum exit payment, but would still receive the classic lump sum payment.

If you just wanted the cash lump sum payment, you could take take that and then choose to commence your pension whenever you wished.

All the details of the Compensation Scheme are at this link.

Bravepants

Yes, why not?


Depending on your age, and how many years you have left until your pension's normal retirement date, they may well let you buy out any actuarial reduction in your pension using your redundancy payment and allow you to take the pension early.

mapleoak

Thanks very much - sounds like I have options should the situation arise - although I realise the details are a little sketchy at the moment.

femalemonarchfemalecanine

mapleoak wrote: »

So the Tories have already said they are targeting reform in the Civil Service - which I realise will go down very well with some. Ignoring the politics for a moment - given I would have almost 39 years of CS pension - almost all in Classic - would I be able to take a redundancy package if my organisation offered it AND then take my pension and lump sum a year or two later? Or doesn’t it work that way?

it can work that way, yes. If over 60 then your redundancy will be capped - at the moment - but yes, you can take redundancy, then take your pension when you want, subject to the minimum age of course.
good luck :beer:

femalemonarchfemalecanine

hugheskevi wrote: »

I have not read that the reforms involve cutting numbers of staff.

snip for brevity

details of the Compensation Scheme are at this link.

locations for parts of the civil service are being very much reduced, so if you are not lucky enough to live near to one of the new centres then you're redundant. So not necessarily reducing numbers, but very much binning tens of thousands of years of experience.
but new entrants are on worse terms and conditions, and cheaper than people with experience.
so when you get rubbish service, blame the tories

mapleoak

femalemonarchfemalecanine wrote: »

it can work that way, yes. If over 60 then your redundancy will be capped - at the moment - but yes, you can take redundancy, then take your pension when you want, subject to the minimum age of course.
good luck :beer:

Thanks for the response. I should stress that the organisation I work for aren’t offering redundancy - but have in the past - so I was simply curious whether you could take a VES payment at say 59 and then pick up a pension & lump sum a year later - which would be a bit of a no brainer if you were considering going at 60 anyway.

For what it’s worth if the Tories don’t impose a further pay freeze for civil servants or look to change terms and conditions then my names not Boris Johnson.

hugheskevi

it can work that way, yes. If over 60 then your redundancy will be capped - at the moment - but yes, you can take redundancy, then take your pension when you want, subject to the minimum age of course.

The OP says:

given I would have almost 39 years of CS pension - almost all in Classic

That suggests the OP has transitioned into alpha, with a Normal Pension age of either 66 or 67. Hence the age cap (and tapering as the age cap is approached) would apply at those ages, not 60 (which is the Normal Pension age for classic).

german_keeper

hugheskevi wrote: »

The OP says:

That suggests the OP has transitioned into alpha, with a Normal Pension age of either 66 or 67. Hence the age cap (and tapering as the age cap is approached) would apply at those ages, not 60 (which is the Normal Pension age for classic).

This has caused some discussion where I work. So people who were always considering retiring at 60 in the old schemes will get a full redundancy payment if made redundant at about age 59 onwards if they are in the Alpha scheme, rather than being subject to the old tapering restrictions. A colleague has put the question to MyCSP and is still waiting for a reply.

Do you know if this particular point has been officially clarified or confirmed?

hugheskevi

Do you know if this particular point has been officially clarified or confirmed?

Yes - in the scheme rules. In particular:

“Pension Age” means, for a person who is or is eligible to be an active member of the 2015Scheme, the person's normal pension age under the 2015 Scheme as defined in regulation 2 ofthe 2014 Regulations; and in any other case means—

In conjunction with

Civil servants within three years of the pension age

For a civil servant, or a person who at any time has opted out of the scheme, who, at early retirement, is within three years of the pension age the lump sum compensation payment under rule 10.6, 10.9 or 10.11 (excluding any lump sum resulting from commutation of an annual payment) will be reduced by one thirty-sixth for each month of service within three years of the pension age, counting any part of a month as a full month.

femalemonarchfemalecanine

german_keeper wrote: »

This has caused some discussion where I work. So people who were always considering retiring at 60 in the old schemes will get a full redundancy payment if made redundant at about age 59 onwards if they are in the Alpha scheme, rather than being subject to the old tapering restrictions. A colleague has put the question to MyCSP and is still waiting for a reply.

Do you know if this particular point has been officially clarified or confirmed?

An NHS worker has bought and won a case for age discrimination for capping her redundancy payment, so expect some sort of change of law around the whole subject soon