Civil Service AVCs and amounts

Yorkie1

michaels said:

I do EPA and added

You are completely right. I got it muddled up. This page on CS Pensions says you can't do Added Pension and AVC.

But as I'll have enough to live on once I reach 65 (EPA / Actuarial reduction of non-EPA Alpha pension), the focus is on filling that 5 year gap.

My thought process is to gain the tax advantage of paying into AVCs (or I suppose a SIPP, but AVCs are cheap and less hassle) and hopefully gain in some value by 8 years' time when I can start withdrawing some of the capital to live on as required, or use other ISA investments / savings and let the AVC keep growing.

Happy for further feedback on this putative plan though

Yorkie1

Life has got in the way and I am only now getting round to the AVC paperwork, but am just double checking a couple of things.

My intention is still to retire in probably spring 2031, once I've turned 60 and got through the following winter.

Initial monthly contributions of £1500 per month should ensure I'm down below 40% tax level for this financial year (I wasn't far off already with regular pensions, EPA and Gift Aid, but I have also had a pay rise backdated to April 23). I may reduce contributions down to perhaps £1K per month once into the new tax year. This would mean total contributions of perhaps £100K at today's prices, with a pot value of whatever the stock market has done to the fund in the interim!

The main purpose of the AVCs is to help fund the gap between retirement at 60 with Classic pension, and taking Alpha at 65 years (some with EPA -2). I also have S&S ISAs (about £100K at present) and quite a bit of cash, although much of that is currently earmarked for a home extension.

I understand from the AVC scheme booklet that my retirement age would be set at 67 by default, and that tthe default fund is the Legal & General (PMC) Multi-Asset Fund 3.

My questions are whether there is anything I should be aware of which might influence the retirement age  that L&G work towards, and/or whether I should consider something other than the default fund in my circumstances?

Many thanks for any thoughts you may have.

pathsofdarkness

Yorkie1 said:

 This page on CS Pensions says you can't do Added Pension and AVC.

I do both Alpha Added Pension and AVC at the same time, they are not mutually exclusive. What you can't do is both Added Pension and EPA in the same scheme year I believe because EPA reduced the maximum amount of Added Pension you can accrue (or at least that is my understanding)-.

Yorkie1

I've now set up AVCs, and the first deduction was in January's payslip.

How long do you think it's likely to take for this to be registered by L&G and for me to receive details of my policy / account / log in details etc.?

r6mile

Within a few days I would say. Mine was very quick - what took far longer (about 3-4 months) was the transfer of my old Nutmeg pension into the L&G pension.

hugheskevi

Yorkie1 said:

I've now set up AVCs, and the first deduction was in January's payslip.

How long do you think it's likely to take for this to be registered by L&G and for me to receive details of my policy / account / log in details etc.?

The new account is created whenever L&G receives the funds from your employer, so it depends when the employer interfaces over the contributions. That might take up to about 3 weeks, so I'd say to expect it by Friday 23rd Jan but hopefully earlier.

Yorkie1

Thank you both :-)

Leew89

My Civil Service AVCs usually clear my account on 19th of each month.

Kynthia

Yorkie1 said:

Life has got in the way and I am only now getting round to the AVC paperwork, but am just double checking a couple of things.

My intention is still to retire in probably spring 2031, once I've turned 60 and got through the following winter.

Initial monthly contributions of £1500 per month should ensure I'm down below 40% tax level for this financial year (I wasn't far off already with regular pensions, EPA and Gift Aid, but I have also had a pay rise backdated to April 23). I may reduce contributions down to perhaps £1K per month once into the new tax year. This would mean total contributions of perhaps £100K at today's prices, with a pot value of whatever the stock market has done to the fund in the interim!

The main purpose of the AVCs is to help fund the gap between retirement at 60 with Classic pension, and taking Alpha at 65 years (some with EPA -2). I also have S&S ISAs (about £100K at present) and quite a bit of cash, although much of that is currently earmarked for a home extension.

I understand from the AVC scheme booklet that my retirement age would be set at 67 by default, and that tthe default fund is the Legal & General (PMC) Multi-Asset Fund 3.

My questions are whether there is anything I should be aware of which might influence the retirement age  that L&G work towards, and/or whether I should consider something other than the default fund in my circumstances?

Many thanks for any thoughts you may have.

Are you able to access your AVC pension pot before your Alpha pension commences?

Yorkie1

Kynthia said:

Yorkie1 said:

Life has got in the way and I am only now getting round to the AVC paperwork, but am just double checking a couple of things.

My intention is still to retire in probably spring 2031, once I've turned 60 and got through the following winter.

Initial monthly contributions of £1500 per month should ensure I'm down below 40% tax level for this financial year (I wasn't far off already with regular pensions, EPA and Gift Aid, but I have also had a pay rise backdated to April 23). I may reduce contributions down to perhaps £1K per month once into the new tax year. This would mean total contributions of perhaps £100K at today's prices, with a pot value of whatever the stock market has done to the fund in the interim!

The main purpose of the AVCs is to help fund the gap between retirement at 60 with Classic pension, and taking Alpha at 65 years (some with EPA -2). I also have S&S ISAs (about £100K at present) and quite a bit of cash, although much of that is currently earmarked for a home extension.

I understand from the AVC scheme booklet that my retirement age would be set at 67 by default, and that tthe default fund is the Legal & General (PMC) Multi-Asset Fund 3.

My questions are whether there is anything I should be aware of which might influence the retirement age  that L&G work towards, and/or whether I should consider something other than the default fund in my circumstances?

Many thanks for any thoughts you may have.

Are you able to access your AVC pension pot before your Alpha pension commences?

Yes, you can take the AVCs without retiring, irrespective of which CS pension scheme(s) you are in:
https://www.civilservicepensionscheme.org.uk/your-pension/managing-your-pension/increase-your-pension/civil-service-additional-voluntary-contribution-scheme-csavcs/