Civil Service Pensions: Why I plan to pick Partnership over Alpha 30 January at 7:21PM in Pensions, annuities & retirement planning 12 replies 688 views

NedS

A consideration for younger CS's who are more likely on lower grades (EO and below) is the reduced costs from next year, now at 4.6% for all those earning below £32k (which will be the vast majority of CS's)

https://www.civilservicepensionscheme.org.uk/your-pension/managing-your-pension/contribution-rates/

And if the PCS Union win their case that is currently in the high court today, then the cost of Alpha may reduce by a further 2% (2.6% would be ludicrously cheap IMHO for a pension worth ~1/3rd of your salary)

Getting_greyer

@NedS. I know it makes no difference as the Alpha scheme has an effective monopoly on the annuity purchased. The DB pension is what it is. However the OP showed a calculation where partner scheme sees 25% of salary per year. Yes this is actual cash, but the employer contributions in Alpha are larger than both combined in employer/employee in the partnership. So what? The calculations should show total cash equivalent of Alpha contributions to buy an annuity (the only one available) with the prescribed Alpha benefits aligned to career pay. Again so what? Makes no difference to pension in hand, true, but it is a more proper cost benefit comparison as shows the scale of what your x% contributions is actually getting.