Civil Service Pension - EPA & Voluntary scheme

NedS

Yes, added pension and EPA should have similar effect. You could purchase EPA to retire on a full pension 3 years early, or pay the same amount to by an additional sum of added pension, thus increasing your pension, and then retire 3 years early with the actuarial reduction bringing your "increased" pension back in line to the same amount as you would get with EPA. Or at least that's the theory.

Given your age, and the huge number of unknowns during the next 40 years, your decision is going to boil down to do you purchase extra guaranteed income in the form of your alpha DB pension (either through added pension or EPA) or do you go the SIPP/LISA/ISA DC route which arguably gives you more flexibility post 58 but without the guarantees.

If it were me, and I were your age, I would max out the alpha pension now whilst you are young (as previously mentioned it's cheaper now) and get as much DB pension as you can in the bag now as one never knows how much longer guaranteed DB schemes will be around for. You can always add SIPP/LISA/ISA later in life once the mortgage is paid and the kids have left home etc. The one thing I have found is that the older I get, the more value I place on my DB pensions.

For full disclosure, I am a member of the alpha scheme and am currently buying additional pension (and approximately twice your age).

pensioner1993

NedS said:

Yes, added pension and EPA should have similar effect. You could purchase EPA to retire on a full pension 3 years early, or pay the same amount to by an additional sum of added pension, thus increasing your pension, and then retire 3 years early with the actuarial reduction bringing your "increased" pension back in line to the same amount as you would get with EPA. Or at least that's the theory.

Given your age, and the huge number of unknowns during the next 40 years, your decision is going to boil down to do you purchase extra guaranteed income in the form of your alpha DB pension (either through added pension or EPA) or do you go the SIPP/LISA/ISA DC route which arguably gives you more flexibility post 58 but without the guarantees.

If it were me, and I were your age, I would max out the alpha pension now whilst you are young (as previously mentioned it's cheaper now) and get as much DB pension as you can in the bag now as one never knows how much longer guaranteed DB schemes will be around for. You can always add SIPP/LISA/ISA later in life once the mortgage is paid and the kids have left home etc. The one thing I have found is that the older I get, the more value I place on my DB pensions.

For full disclosure, I am a member of the alpha scheme and am currently buying additional pension (and approximately twice your age).

Thanks for that really inciteful. 
On added pension, if my aim is to retire early then I don't think this would be the best option unless I took a reduction in my pension. Although I have no idea what the fees/differences are if you retire early. The civil service pension with their high contribution will surely be more than enough to retire on once I reach the state pension age. 
Then I believe what I should do is buy EPA to retire three years early and is relatively straight forward. 
Also is LISA a good option for retirement? I worked out that if I saved the maximum amount from 30-50 then I would have a sum of £100,000 to take out when I am 60 and use to fund retirement. 
This could be alongside a stocks and shares ISA, which although would be more risk, I could achieve a decent sum by the time I am 60. 
All this means it seems quite possible to retire at 60 - I would love to do a PhD which may provide me the funds I need.