Do I move local authority pension to NHS?

scotgirl

I am 40 and have moved from 15 years employment with a local authority to the NHS (both Scotland) and can transfer my local authority pension into the NHS one.


I have no idea if this is a good idea or not and have a few months left to decide. I've never used a pension advisor, is there somewhere online I could access some advice?


Thanks!

Dazed_and_confused

Could be a great idea. Could be awful. Too little info to go off though.

For example you may be giving up a final salary pension based on local authority salary of £40k, payable at 60 in return for something payable at 68 with the NHS.

scotgirl

Thanks, both pensions are part of Public Sector Transfer Club and it says in my letter that my years (prior to 2015) in the final salary scheme would be protected.


I just wondered if anyone could advise an online pension advisor or somewhere I could get advice about it?

Dazed_and_confused

Pensionwise?

xylophone

Pensionwise?

Not much help for a DB pension as here.

xylophone

I have no idea if this is a good idea or not

Bear in mind that should you ever wish to transfer out into a DC scheme, this is not possible from an unfunded public sector pension scheme like the NHS.

LGPS, (though public sector), is funded.

Therefore you might wish simply to leave the LGPS deferred and start afresh with NHS?

It seems likely you would need advice from an IFA with specialist knowledge of Public Sector pensions? This will not be free.

https://www.unison.org.uk/content/uploads/2013/06/Briefings-and-CircularsPensions-Advice-Who-do-I-ask3.pdf

https://hcrifa.co.uk/our-services/corporate-advice/public-sector-pensions/

Examples from googling
https://www.dgsifa.com/our-services/public-sector-pensions/

Silvertabby

As xylophone says, only the LGPS allows transfers out to private pensions - but think long and hard before deciding to go down that route. Transfer out factors for the LGPS are set by GAD and are notoriously low - a cetv (transfer out quote) of less than 20 times the annual pension given up wouldn't raise my eyebrows.

As for transferring into the NHS, there is really no right or wrong answer. A previous poster mentioned that you may be able to access your LGPS pension in full from age 60 if you left it where it is - but you won't. In view of your age and dates of LGPS service your Rule of 85 protections will be limited to your pre 2008 service only, and so won't make a huge difference overall.

What you could do is to ask for a quote and then compare what the NHS will pay you against your deferred LGPS benefits. Pop back here with the figures if you like, and we'll explain (not advise, as that's against the board rules).

Zero_Sum

Personally id just leave them as they are

hyubh

If you transferred, under Club terms, you would get a service credit in the last version of the NHS final scheme for your pre-April 15 LGPS service. It wouldn't be exactly like-for-like, but will be close-ish given a very similar benefit structure to LGPS 2009 (sixtieths, NRA of 65).

The small bit of 85 year rule protection wouldn't come over, but were your NHS job to end on a much higher salary than your local authority one, allowing for inflation, transferring would have proved a very good idea. So, whether that pay growth will likely happen is probably the key thing to ask.

Any transfer-in quote will refer to your salary now, as obviously it can't predict the future. But if the new NHS job already has a much better rate of pay to the old local authority one, then I'd say it would be very unexpected for that not to be maintained.