NHS Pension - buying additional pension or AVCs with Prudential or Std Life

SSquirrel

Has anyone who works in the NHS done either of the above?  If so how do you work out what is the best way ( ie so it benefits you in the longer term)  Im considering whether to buy more but I dont know which option to go with and the NHS fact sheets aren't that helpful if you don't understand the ins and outs of pensions..

GrubbyGirl_2

I retired 3 years ago and I was paying AVCs for about 10 years.  I've just looked it up and see that you can't do that now what a shame

saucer

I’ve bought added years (no longer available) and additional pension (still available). For that the online info is fairly self explanatory. These are bought in multiples of £250 added to your annual pension, which will rise with inflation both while you are working and after you are taking them in retirement. Get an estimate depending on whether you’d pay on a regular basis, or via a lump sum. Bear in mind this will be from pre-tax income. From there it is a matter of considering your health etc to get a sense of how many years you think you will benefit from these multiples of £250, which you will get as part of your pension until you shuffle off this mortal coil. 

Nurse2047

I pay into NHS AVC with Prudential  - I stopped additional payments as to be honest was a complete nightmare. Took about 3 yrs for them to get the right payment as was overpaying loads each month and ended up getting a refund. Communication about additional payments was appalling and no one understands them when you call nhs pensions so opted for AVC instead. 

Nurse2047

GrubbyGirl_2 said:

I retired 3 years ago and I was paying AVCs for about 10 years.  I've just looked it up and see that you can't do that now what a shame

You can still buy AVCs with NHS 

https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/member-hub/increasing-your-pension/money-purchase-additional-voluntary-contributions-mpavc

Greylocks

Additional Pension is payable via monthly payments / NHS PAYE which is tax efficient.
Whether it is worth it is hard to say as it is an expensive purchase. I spent about £45k years ago on this because the stock market was high so I was “locking in” profits. Also I didn’t need the money.
I also bought “Added Years” which is no longer available.
Whether my prudence was worthwhile I won’t know until later this year when I will start to receive the benefits…
Fingers crossed.

draiggoch

I can’t comment on buying additional pension but regarding the AVC, is there any real point to it? As you cannot use it as part of your PCLS against the NHS pension. You could start a personal pension and use it to bridge any early retirement by a few years.

GrubbyGirl_2

MFW2026 said:

GrubbyGirl_2 said:

I retired 3 years ago and I was paying AVCs for about 10 years.  I've just looked it up and see that you can't do that now what a shame

You can still buy AVCs with NHS 

https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/member-hub/increasing-your-pension/money-purchase-additional-voluntary-contributions-mpavc

I was referring to added years - AVCs were how it showed on my payslip

SSquirrel

Thanks all, why do these things need to be so complicated!

saucer

SSquirrel said:

Thanks all, why do these things need to be so complicated!

It’s not so complicated if you compare the options. Generally speaking you can be clear that:
1. It is generally a very good idea to put any money you don’t need access to in your pension 
2. The main choice for you is extra guaranteed income until you die (the additional pension route) OR
3. Some version of saving into a fund that will increase depending on how much you save and how it grows as an investment 

I would definitely start with getting the estimate here https://www.nhspensions.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/PensionCalculators/AdditionalPension/index.aspx as I mentioned on previous post. Either way this a good thing to be doing for your future.

SSquirrel

Thank you saucer, I've just used the calculator and am on hold to NHS pensions now to see if they can explain how it works if I bought a lump sum, in terms of tax relief, or if I could a mix of lump sum / instalments