Civil Service Pension - options on early retirement

RetSol

I took voluntary severance from the Civil Service in 2010 and now plan to take my classic pension on an actuarially reduced basis from April 2020. I am living on my savings at present and need to make a decision.  
I want to mitigate the effects of the actuarial reduction and there seem to be two possibilities -
(a) a buyout of the whole reduction (partial buyout does not seem to an option);
(b) inverse commutation of the lump sum.
Option (a) will cost c. £84,000 and give me a pension of £19,000 p. a and a lump sum of £57,000.  Option (b) will mean surrendering c. £48,000  and will give me a pension of £18,000 p. a.
I believe that I can claim tax relief on the buyout payment.  If I make the payment next tax year, (20/21), I will have c. £60,000 in unused allowances available so the effective cost of (a) will be c. £72,000 (ie £84,000 minus £12,000).
I am inclined to go for option (b), partly because it will give me an additional £15,000 to play with between now and my state pension age of 67 (ie £72,000 minus £48,000 minus £9,000).  I will be entitled to a full state pension. The trade-off is a lower annual occupational pension for good. 
Option (a) would be trickier in practice because I would have to liquidate some investments in a short period which carries its own risks.  I also find the prospect of handing a large sum of money to MyCSP pretty terrifying given my experience of them thus far.  It has been a six-month long nightmare getting an accurate quotation out of them.
I know that there are a lot of very knowledgeable participants in these forums and any observations which you may have on my options would be welcome. 

Dazed_and_C0nfused

I am living on my savings at present and need to make a decision.  

I believe that I can claim tax relief on the buyout payment.

If I make the payment next tax year, (20/21), I will have c. £60,000 in unused allowances available so the effective cost of (a) will be c. £72,000 (ie £84,000 minus £12,000).

Are you certain about the tax relief.   If I have understood you correctly you are banking on the tax relief being £12,000.

But you don't mention actually having any earnings so I'm not sure on what basis you think you can,

a).  Use carry forward

b).  Get any tax relief on a pension contribution which isn't to a relief at source scheme?

c). Irrespective of b) get tax relief (outside of a relief at source scheme) of £12,000 when you will probably only be paying, at most, £1,300* in income tax?

*based on you getting a full years pension of £19k and no other taxable income in the tax year you make the pension contribution

RetSol

Thanks, Dazed
Since 2016/17, I have worked on fixed term contracts and been a member of d. c. scheme so I am assuming that I can carry forward unused allowances. I am also assuming that I can claim relief on tax in 20/21 when my main income will be the pension. 

Dazed_and_C0nfused

In your original post you said

I am living on my savings at present

So what pensionable earnings will you have in 2020:21 which will allow you get tax relief other than the £720 that can be gained by contributing £2,880 via a relief at source scheme?

It isn't clear at the moment that carry forward will be of any use to you at all.

Or maybe I'm missing some nuance of how the tax relief works with the buyout payment?

xylophone

 https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5788993/civil-service-pension-at-55-reduction-buy-out/p1
Above thread may be worth a look. https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/profile/hugheskevi This poster is very knowledgeable about Public Service Schemes.
https://www.pensionsadvisoryservice.org.uk/about-pensions/saving-into-a-pension/pensions-and-tax/carry-forward

RetSol

Thank you, xylophone.
Having done some more research, I think that I have overestimated the unused allowances available.  I find it helpful to set out the options in writing and submit them to scrutiny.  Not for nothing was I a civil servant for 20 years.