Transfer NHS pension

ATM.Liverpool

Hi,
I have literally no idea about pensions so any help/advice or signposting at all would be great!
I have been in an NHS pension for nearly 9 years and i am leaving to join the Civil Service.
Should i leave my NHS pension as is (deferred member) or transfer it into the Civil Service Alpha pension?
Thanks in advance.

xylophone

https://www.civilservicepensionscheme.org.uk/members/public-sector-transfer-club/

ATM.Liverpool

I have looked at this but it means nothing to me, apologies. It does not advise me whether to transfer or leave my NHS pension.

Dazed_and_C0nfused

What age can you take your NHS pension without reduction?

What age would you be able to take the pension without reduction if it was in the Civil Service Alpha scheme?

There are plenty more things to consider but you will need to weigh up the pros and cons.  For some it is a good idea for others a very bad idea.

ATM.Liverpool

I have 4 years of the NHS 2008 scheme pension which has a retirement age of 65.
The rest of my NHS pension is in the 2015 scheme which has a retirement age of the national pension age.
The civil service alpha scheme is also the national pension age.

xylophone

It cannot advise you - whether or not to transfer in is a decision for you to make.
Incidentally, are you in a final salary pension with NHS?
https://www.civilservicepensionscheme.org.uk/members/alpha-scheme-guide/

How does a Club transfer in from a final salary scheme work?

A final salary scheme provides a pension based on your salary and length of service at the end of your career.

The alpha rules do not allow a final salary pension to be transferred into alpha. Your transfer will be added to nuvos, even if you have never been a member, but linked to your alpha pension. This will provide you with a final salary pension linked to your main alpha pension.

Although your transfer will be in nuvos, not alpha, it will still be included in any estimates or statements you get.

bowlhead99

ATM.Liverpool said:

I have looked at this but it means nothing to me, apologies. It does not advise me whether to transfer or leave my NHS pension.

Oh ok if you just want someone to tell you whether to transfer, I'll have a go:

Yeah, do it.

Although, apologies, I don't know anything of you or your personal circumstances or what existing pension rights you have and therefore what benefits they would buy if transferred in, so my 'advice' could be really inappropriate. The 'best' answer will differ from person to person.

I did see the following useful text from the linked site that when you try to do a transfer in to Alpha:  

your previous scheme calculates the transfer value of your previous pension benefits. The Scheme Administrator, (MyCSP), works out how much alpha pension that amount will buy you. If you are happy with the valuation you can apply for the transfer to go ahead.

So, if you attempt to do a transfer they will literally tell you what alpha pension you will have bought as part of the transfer process, before you go ahead with the transfer. Presumably you already know what pension benefits you will get with your NHS scheme, so you could compare what you would get with what you have, and if you didn't like it, you wouldn't go ahead, and if you did, you would. Can't get more simple than that, unless you literally want them to tell you what you prefer to do.

Have you read up on the scheme benefits for your new job? Do you know what benefits you already have? If answer to both is no, both schemes have literature containing their rules and summarising their benefits, and the transfer process itself would tell you how much new pension you would get by giving up all the old one, and you could stop the transfer if you didn't want it. If, as you say, you have no idea about pensions - starting to read up about the specific scheme you have and the scheme you're moving to would be a good thing. Even if a free website doesn't tell you whether to do it or not.