Merseyside pension fund

Carolineh

Hi there 

I am trying to make sense of the merseyside pension fund and what I will have in 30 years time! 

I have been paying into the pension fund for 3 years. With both employee and my contributions this works out about £7,200 per year. 

Does anyone know what I can expect at the end of this. My salary is currently 40k a year. 

Marcon

Carolineh said:

Hi there 

I am trying to make sense of the merseyside pension fund and what I will have in 30 years time! 

I have been paying into the pension fund for 3 years. With both employee and my contributions this works out about £7,200 per year. 

Does anyone know what I can expect at the end of this. My salary is currently 40k a year. 

See https://mpfmembers.org.uk/active and scroll down to the icon for 'calculating your pension'.

JoeCrystal

Carolineh said:

Hi there 

I am trying to make sense of the merseyside pension fund and what I will have in 30 years time! 

I have been paying into the pension fund for 3 years. With both employee and my contributions this works out about £7,200 per year. 

Does anyone know what I can expect at the end of this. My salary is currently 40k a year. 

I suggest you read up on lgpsmember.org. Did you not get any booklets or websites to help you to understand how does it work from your employer?

Considering how straightforward it is, you should have no problem calculating it. As it is based on 1/49 for each year of earnings, let's say for the last three years, you earned 40k in today's term, then you already built up £2,448 pension, index-linked for life. If you did 33 years and assume that you are on the same salary in today's term AND the scheme does not change, then you can expect to have a £26,938 pension (admittedly lower if you draw before your State Pension Age) 

MX5huggy

The bit the scheme misses out and Joe Crystal has also missed is it’s £2,448 pension PER YEAR for the rest of you life from retirement age. Which seems much better value for your £2600 annual contribution (the employer contributions are irrelevant to you really, you have no option of taking them somewhere else). 

Dazed_and_C0nfused

Carolineh said:

Hi there 

I am trying to make sense of the merseyside pension fund and what I will have in 30 years time! 

I have been paying into the pension fund for 3 years. With both employee and my contributions this works out about £7,200 per year. 

Does anyone know what I can expect at the end of this. My salary is currently 40k a year. 

Ignoring any potential pay rises and inflation you would get just shy of £27k after 33 years.

And almost certainly a full new State Pension of £10,600 from your State Pension age.

There is a better than average table in this guide with an example of how the pension builds up.

https://mpfmembers.org.uk/pdf/employees23.pdf

And the contributions are irrelevant really, it's your pensionable earnings and length of service which are key with a CARE scheme.

sgx2000

I am a current MPF pensioner

I worked for Mersybus / MPTE for approx 18 years  1982-2000

Just as an example
My pension paid out at 60
currently £7400 per year
lump was £18k

Dont leave the scheme for any reason....
nice solid ... index linked pension

hyubh

sgx2000 said:

I am a current MPF pensioner

I worked for Mersybus / MPTE for approx 18 years  1982-2000

Just as an example
My pension paid out at 60
currently £7400 per year
lump was £18k

That was under the pre-2008 version of the scheme mind (final salary, 1/80 pension and 3/80 lump sum). The OP is under the CARE scheme (1/49 pension, lump sum by commutation, NPA as SPA) - notwithstanding the higher NPA, the CARE scheme can actually be better if your salary doesn't increase much over the time you are a member.

Don't leave the scheme for any reason....
nice solid ... index linked pension

Indeed!

TywysogLloegr

Pensions seem a long way in the future, and then one day it is not. LGPS schemes are good value savings. The Merseyside Pensions has a website, there will be more information there. The tone of the original post is that ‘I am paying loads of money for what?’ They are a really good benefit of your employment. The scheme will also have life insurance for you, normally 3 times your annual salary.
The pension you will get if it is in the newer CARE schemes will have been revalued by 10.1% this April. 

TywysogLloegr

I do need to learn how to read. Sorry for the bit about tone in my above post.  Recently retired and my LGPS have added up over time and have proved to be a good investment.  

Carolineh

Thank you for your posts! And to the people who told me to look at the website yes I have and saw the fraction 1/49th but do not have a clue what this equates to with the contributions that I am making. The calculators on the pension sites do not seem to calculate the end result and do about additional voluntary contributions instead! 
I have been told by lots of people that merseyside pension scheme in particular is one of the best pension schemes to have so I'm not ungrateful just trying to figure out what this all means for my future as I am trying to be more financially aware than I previously had. P

Bimbly

Carolineh said:

I have and saw the fraction 1/49th but do not have a clue what this equates to with the contributions that I am making. 

It doesn't equate to the contributions you are making!

The benefit to you is, your pension builds up of 1/49th of your salary per year, which is basically a promise to pay you a certain amount when you retire. This costs you a certain percentage of your salary. Once you have "bought" one year's worth of pension with your contribution, the amount it cost you doesn't matter.