Civil Service AVCs and amounts

Kynthia

Yorkie1 said:

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/

Thank you. That's very different to the current LGPS AVC so I wasn't sure.

Yorkie1

Just to update in case anyone comes across this thread: I was paid on the final working day of January, and today I received an email to my work address from L&G with instructions on how to set up My Account with them, my customer reference number etc.

So it took about 2 weeks from payslip to initial email.