LGPS early retirement

Gin_and_Milk

SimonEvans said:

Many thanks. Yes, she can access the local government scheme website but as far as I'm aware, it doesn't give the projections that you mention. We have requested a forecast based on her retiring at 60, but the response was simply a generic "how to work out your pension" document. I do understand that it cannot realistically take into account unknown future pay increases but I was wondering whether we could work this out ourselves using a few different potential scenarios - time to get the calculator out I think!

Regarding the difference between DB and DC pensions, yes fully understand the difference. The reason for the original post was an endeavour to get a figure for my wife's "share" of providing future income do that I could begin to estimate my own retirement date. Thanks to all of you who have responded.

I can't understand why she can't access her pension statements, as Sevenhills said, they're in the 'My Documents' section of the website - has she had a proper look?  It just seems strange that some of us can access LGPS statements from age 55, yet your wife can't?  If she can't find it, I'd email the LGPS to ask why some members can, yet she can't.  It's a really useful document to be able to access, as like you say, it can help both of you with your plans.
The reason I suggest you don't compare DC & DB pensions is that with DB pensions you can pretty much take the stock market out of the equation.  It looks as though the SPA will increase at some point, but that will be based on age, not pension type.

Gin_and_Milk

Sevenhill - It will have changed.  I finished at 12 month secondment on a higher grade last year, so my statement for that year was higher than this year's, not by a massive amount, but the difference in salary wasn't that big either.

jamjar92

I think across different  schemes statements are different, mine shows now and NRA. It has good projection calculator, but I do not all schemes offer this functionality from reading from other forum members on here.

Reg_Smeeton

SimonEvans said:

Thanks. Again, this is as I thought. So (again, please excuse my ignorance) how would we get an accurate picture of what my wife could expect to receive at early retirement? She is currently 52 years old and hoping to finish at 60. Her income will massively influence my own retirement age. I was naïve enough to think that one of the advantages of her scheme over mine was the ability to access fairly accurate projections without the vagueries of the stock market playing a part. If we request a projected figure from the scheme, surely this too wouldn't include future contributions either and, therefore, be pretty useless for planning purposes.

Sorry if I’m missing something.... surely the way to work this out yourself is to take the current value from her most recent pension statement.

Then for every full year your wife will work before retirement, add 1/49th of her expected pay until you arrive at a total.

Then apply the relevant actuarial reduction based on her proposed retirement age.

Pipkin1812

Gin_and_Milk said

I'm with LGPS and I can access my statement online which gives projections for retiring at 55, 60, 65 and 67 - can she not access this?  It was a while ago, but it's in a section called 'My Pension', and I think I had register for access.
The amount is worked out on current salary, so I recently got my figures and they're based on what I'm earning now.  

Can I ask whether your statement with projections at 55, 60, 65 etc was from the LGPS website or your specific scheme site? I have never been able to find this information so would be good to know how you accessed it. Thanks 

sevenhills

Pipkin1812 said:

Can I ask whether your statement with projections at 55, 60, 65 etc was from the LGPS website or your specific scheme site? I have never been able to find this information so would be good to know how you accessed it. Thanks 

For me it is the West Yorkshire pension fund, but it was also on the yearly paper statements.

Gin_and_Milk

Pipkin1812 said:

Gin_and_Milk said

I'm with LGPS and I can access my statement online which gives projections for retiring at 55, 60, 65 and 67 - can she not access this?  It was a while ago, but it's in a section called 'My Pension', and I think I had register for access.
The amount is worked out on current salary, so I recently got my figures and they're based on what I'm earning now.  

Can I ask whether your statement with projections at 55, 60, 65 etc was from the LGPS website or your specific scheme site? I have never been able to find this information so would be good to know how you accessed it. Thanks 

Like Sevenhills I'm also with the West Yorkshire Pension Fund.  It's a shame it doesn't appear to be available to all LGPS as it really is a very handy tool and I honestly wouldn't know where to start with working it out myself.  I did apply for some figures years ago, and I just did not understand it at all.

Pipkin1812

Thanks Sevenhills and Milk and Gin. You’re right it’s a real shame not all pension funds are as informative. I’m with Kent and the site doesn’t have give anything more than the national LGPS website. I appreciate that detailed estimates would still be needed but your pension fund sounds much more helpful. 

SimonEvans

Many thanks for all of the helpful suggestions. My wife has now obtained a projected statement for retirement at 60 from the pension fund but, I'm afraid it has left us more confused than ever.
She has, in fact, received three statements. They are identical in outlay but give three different figures even though the proposed retirement date (my wife's 60th birthday) is the same for each. The variation lies in the following lines:

"Financial Pensionable Pay used for calculating pre 31/03/2014 benefits"
These are then respectively given as:
Statement 1= £0.00
Statement 2 = £921.80
Statement 3 = £25,651.08

Then next line is:
"Pensionable Pay used for calculating Career Average Pension"
And these are then listed as follows:
Statement 1 = £25,651.08
Statement 2 = £523.49
Statement 3 = £25,651.08

They then go on to list projected annual pay (after reduction for early retirement) as follows:
Statement 1 = £2457.68
Statement 2 = £2121.74
Statement 3 = £3174.93.

More help would be greatly appreciated. Apologies in advance for my ignorance but really don't understand what we should expect. Surely it isn't all three combined???

Silvertabby

SimonEvans said:

Many thanks for all of the helpful suggestions. My wife has now obtained a projected statement for retirement at 60 from the pension fund but, I'm afraid it has left us more confused than ever.
She has, in fact, received three statements. They are identical in outlay but give three different figures even though the proposed retirement date (my wife's 60th birthday) is the same for each. The variation lies in the following lines:

"Financial Pensionable Pay used for calculating pre 31/03/2014 benefits"
These are then respectively given as:
Statement 1= £0.00
Statement 2 = £921.80
Statement 3 = £25,651.08

Then next line is:
"Pensionable Pay used for calculating Career Average Pension"
And these are then listed as follows:
Statement 1 = £25,651.08
Statement 2 = £523.49
Statement 3 = £25,651.08

They then go on to list projected annual pay (after reduction for early retirement) as follows:
Statement 1 = £2457.68
Statement 2 = £2121.74
Statement 3 = £3174.93.

More help would be greatly appreciated. Apologies in advance for my ignorance but really don't understand what we should expect. Surely it isn't all three combined???

Could be.  Most likely explanation is that your wife has/had 3 different posts, which haven't been combined.  Did she have more than one part time post at the same time? What are the service dates on each statement?