NHS Pension

Danny-r

MallyGirl said:

Danny-r said:

I like the idea of both jobs, and I'm completely undecided. I completely agree about not choosing a job purely on financials, but because I'm so undecided I'm trying to get my head around anything. The offer I've been given is £42k (although she said some room to manoeuvre so I suspect I could negotiate up to £45k). So that would be pensionable. A £5k car allowance added to the salary. And then pension, which I've read in one place is a non-contributory pension but then been told it's 5% matched.

You definitely need clarity on the contribution basis - matched by employer or non-contributory.
You need to see if they are a stingy employer - some only calculate their contribution based on a percentage of the pay above the lower threshold (the amount you have to be earning in order for them to be required to contribute to a pension).
Car allowance is a taxable benefit and can limit the amount of fuel you get reimbursed (different rate per mile).
Is the pension via salary sacrifice? Yes is the better answer.

I'm going to enquire more but having to be careful how I do it. I'm actually in touch with with a current employee of the organisation.

I think they're struggling to recruit people in my position, so much that they've offered to allow me to continue working at my current place for 1 day a week on a "bank shift" for the first 12 months so that I can maintain my professional registration should I be worried about not liking the new job within the first 12 months.

The car allowance is an interesting point. I actually enquired about this on the initial phone call with the recruiter in charge of the post. She indicated that it was added to the salary, so if I went for a mortgage I would be declaring it as my total income, and therefore I would assume is only liable for income tax.