Rules about getting a retirement quote

westv

With a DB shouldn't the benefit figure be what you would get at the date of the statement if you were at the scheme retirement age?
How can it go down?

Tony_J

I guess that's what I need to know if the letter I got in 2007 was based on a prediction including future inflation. Marcon mentions prevailing inflation in the 90s.  But the letter with the higher estimate was 2007.  I have no idea how I could verify the figures.  The letter from 2007. 

Another strange thing is in both quotes there is an option to take a lump sum and then a reduced pension.  The lump sum and reduced income are both slightly higher in the new quote compared to the letter from 2007.  Yet not going for the lump sum annual pension is £340.66 per year lower in the new quote.

Marcon

Tony_J said:

I guess that's what I need to know if the letter I got in 2007 was based on a prediction including future inflation. Marcon mentions prevailing inflation in the 90s.  But the letter with the higher estimate was 2007.  I have no idea how I could verify the figures.  The letter from 2007. 

Inflation rates (and thus projections) change the whole time, and projections are only ever that: projections. They are not 'retirement quotes', but simply estimates - and the paperwork you will have received is likely to be littered with suitable caveats.

Tony_J said:

Another strange thing is in both quotes there is an option to take a lump sum and then a reduced pension.  The lump sum and reduced income are both slightly higher in the new quote compared to the letter from 2007.  Yet not going for the lump sum annual pension is £340.66 per year lower in the new quote.

Commutation factors (the amount of tax free cash you'd get in exchange for giving up each £ of pension) also change unless the rules of the scheme set them in stone, which is rare. There is no requirement to tell members each time they change. Typically these factors would be reviewed at least every 3 years, following the conclusion of each triennial valuation of the scheme.