Civil Service 2% pension uplift for uniformed staff.

chubsta

Ok, I know this is a little 'niche' but hopefully someone will have gone through the process.
If you are a Civil Servant and were wearing uniform in the early 2000s and continue to do so until you retire you get an extra 2% pension uplift. Unfortunately it seems from my colleagues experiences that there is no simple and easy way for this to be applied and involves lots and lots of communication between our HR and the Pensions people - apparently it can't be claimed until after you have retired which then involves your old boss trying to sort it out for you at a time when you have no access to departmental systems.
Has anyone here successfully got this applied, how did they find the process, and do they have any tips?
There was a circular from the department earlier this year saying they hoped to have something in place as a kind of 'tick-box' option on the forms by Autumn but we have heard nothing since and as the CS isn't known for efficiency I doubt this will happen so quickly...

k1nky

Hi,

Just read your post and I am im the same boat as you find yourself in, I have a letter from PPA which is dated 2007 stating that there will be the uniform uplift and an example showing this.

I will be leaving work with pension very soon, so I emailed civil service pensions with the letter as an attachment and after 4 weeks and lots of phone calls still no reply, so resent the email and after further telephone calls I was informed that this would take some time to reply and after another 4 weeks there was an email sitting in my inbox, which stated that the uplift would be included with my final salary from my employer, however its not been possible to obtain these details from the MOD as my HR are saying its the civil service pensions who deal with this.

I guess its something that needs to be looked at when I get the proposed final statement once I push the button to leave with pension, can't understand why they need 4 months notice to start the pension.

Hope this helps and lets you know your not on your own.

Good luck and dont give up.

Cheers

sevenhills

chubsta said:

Ok, I know this is a little 'niche' but hopefully someone will have gone through the process.
If you are a Civil Servant and were wearing uniform in the early 2000s and continue to do so until you retire you get an extra 2% pension uplift.

That sounds like nonsense, a pension uplift based on what you wore for work and a 2% uplift is massive.

chubsta

sevenhills said:

chubsta said:

Ok, I know this is a little 'niche' but hopefully someone will have gone through the process.
If you are a Civil Servant and were wearing uniform in the early 2000s and continue to do so until you retire you get an extra 2% pension uplift.

That sounds like nonsense, a pension uplift based on what you wore for work and a 2% uplift is massive.

Not nonsense at all, it is something that has been agreed applies, as the poster above says they have paperwork saying it applies. it is only the 'how' of getting it applied that is in question...

chubsta

k1nky said:

Hi,

Just read your post and I am im the same boat as you find yourself in, I have a letter from PPA which is dated 2007 stating that there will be the uniform uplift and an example showing this.

I will be leaving work with pension very soon, so I emailed civil service pensions with the letter as an attachment and after 4 weeks and lots of phone calls still no reply, so resent the email and after further telephone calls I was informed that this would take some time to reply and after another 4 weeks there was an email sitting in my inbox, which stated that the uplift would be included with my final salary from my employer, however its not been possible to obtain these details from the MOD as my HR are saying its the civil service pensions who deal with this.

I guess its something that needs to be looked at when I get the proposed final statement once I push the button to leave with pension, can't understand why they need 4 months notice to start the pension.

Hope this helps and lets you know your not on your own.

Good luck and dont give up.

Cheers

Thanks very much for the info - if at all possible I would be grateful if you could update this post with your progress with this. My own CS Department say that it cannot be dealt with until you have actually left as it needs to be confirmed you were in uniform on your last day, but a colleague is currently going through the system so hopefully he will be able to shed some light on it all.

We received an email earlier this year and amongst the various topics was notification that the Department hoped to have a 'tick box' in place on the paperwork by the end of the year to make everything easier but it doesn't look like this has been sorted yet.

xylophone

That sounds like nonsense, a pension uplift based on what you wore for work and a 2% uplift is massive.

https://www.civilservicepensionscheme.org.uk/media/bjqlxrq1/annex-10b-general-description-of-which-elements-of-remuneration-are-pensionable.pdf

Uniformed grades

9. Members in uniformed grades may be entitled to an addition to their pensionable earnings, which is normally calculated as 2% of their basic salary or wages (excluding other pensionable emoluments). A member must be in the uniformed grade for the whole of the 12 month period used to calculate the pensionable earnings. 

BoxerfanUK

Interesting.  Does this refer to the Principal Civil Service Pension Scheme (PCSPS)?

Is it specific to your particular area of the Civil Service?  I was in HMPS in uniform from 1983 and retired in 2018. Never heard of this one

Is it possible you could reproduce or attach a photo of the letter/e-mail (edited if need be)?

xylophone

 I was in HMPS in uniform from 1983 and retired in 2018. Never heard of this one

The link above goes on to say

Please Note: Uniforms may be granted on a non-pensionable basis. The pensionable earnings of members provided with a uniform on a non-pensionable basis are not increased by 2%. 

sevenhills

xylophone said:

 I was in HMPS in uniform from 1983 and retired in 2018. Never heard of this one

The link above goes on to say

Please Note: Uniforms may be granted on a non-pensionable basis. The pensionable earnings of members provided with a uniform on a non-pensionable basis are not increased by 2%. 

So what is it that warrants a 2% uplift?

QrizB

sevenhills said:

xylophone said:

 I was in HMPS in uniform from 1983 and retired in 2018. Never heard of this one

The link above goes on to say

Please Note: Uniforms may be granted on a non-pensionable basis. The pensionable earnings of members provided with a uniform on a non-pensionable basis are not increased by 2%. 

So what is that warrants a 2% uplift?

I suspect it depends on the post. Some might attract a pensionable increase, some a non-pensionable one.

Since it relates to pensionable *pay*, if you're receiving it you should already know as it will appear on your payslip.

There's nothing in the quoted test to suggest that you might get a 2% uplift in pension other than as a direct effect of receiving 2% more pensionable pay.

horsewithnoname

chubsta said:

Ok, I know this is a little 'niche' but hopefully someone will have gone through the process.
If you are a Civil Servant and were wearing uniform in the early 2000s and continue to do so until you retire you get an extra 2% pension uplift. Unfortunately it seems from my colleagues experiences that there is no simple and easy way for this to be applied and involves lots and lots of communication between our HR and the Pensions people - apparently it can't be claimed until after you have retired which then involves your old boss trying to sort it out for you at a time when you have no access to departmental systems.
Has anyone here successfully got this applied, how did they find the process, and do they have any tips?
There was a circular from the department earlier this year saying they hoped to have something in place as a kind of 'tick-box' option on the forms by Autumn but we have heard nothing since and as the CS isn't known for efficiency I doubt this will happen so quickly...

The civil service is under resourced and badly run. MyCsp is a private company and they’re not exactly efficient either. It’s bad enough having non CS run the CS down, without civil servants doing it too 🙄