Private sector to civil service - Advice needed

Simon11

Andy_L said:

What are pay rises/promotion opportunities like in your current job? How will that compare to the CS?

If the OP is like me, with a decent salary, I personally don't have much interested in gaining promotions or having that high on my priority list as usually that will mean more working hours, stress and responsibilities.

For me, providing the role brings in whats I need for now/ future, my focus is on trying to do the bare minimum at work to achieve that goal to focus on now priorities like enjoying life, focusing on family, volunteering for good causes ect.


The OP didn't mention their current bonus and I think this should be factored into the financial calculations to weigh up against the other benefits.

Plus if the OP decides to stay, you should seriously be putting more into your work place pension with such a large salary/ bonus! 

NedS

Andy_L said:

What are pay rises/promotion opportunities like in your current job? How will that compare to the CS?

Promotion opportunities aside, CS pay will erode with inflation over time - pay rises will not keep up (nothing in 2021 when CPI was 0.5%, 2% in 2022 when CPI was 3.1% and 4.5% in 2023 when CPI was 10.1%), which may be a significant factor if the OP plans to stay in the role for potentially 20 years. Promotion can offset the loss to inflation but basically you find yourself taking on more responsibility and stress just to maintain the same real terms inflation-adjusted salary.

michaels

NedS said:

Andy_L said:

What are pay rises/promotion opportunities like in your current job? How will that compare to the CS?

Promotion opportunities aside, CS pay will erode with inflation over time - pay rises will not keep up (nothing in 2021 when CPI was 0.5%, 2% in 2022 when CPI was 3.1% and 4.5% in 2023 when CPI was 10.1%), which may be a significant factor if the OP plans to stay in the role for potentially 20 years. Promotion can offset the loss to inflation but basically you find yourself taking on more responsibility and stress just to maintain the same real terms inflation-adjusted salary.

Generally Public Sector pay has beaten private sector under Labour administrations....

Even in the civil service, if you want to get promoted beyond G7 you would have to put in the hours that you lose the advantages of the public sector.

r6mile

At 72k the role is likely a Deputy Director (old Grade 5), or perhaps a Grade 6 in certain organisations that pay more than average, I would say as a Deputy Director you would likely on occasion be required to work some unsociable hours but even at that level I know lots of people that work flexible patterns, compressed hours, job shares, etc so even then the work life balance is better than the private sector and more of an understanding of boundaries. Of course that may depend on the department - some are better than others.

redrosebud

Re work-life balance, this is very department-dependent and then also role-dependent. It can be very good, even at higher grades, and it can be very bad, even at middle grades. I've seen people join the CS with wild expectations of never having to work stupid hours which is unlikely given you're talking about at least a G6 role. It's not always an improvement on the private sector, depending on the private sector company and role you're coming from. In one department, at a lower grade than I am now, I was working well above my contracted hours and had no life, and this was the norm for this particular role. Now, in a different department at a higher grade, I work my contracted hours, I rarely have to stay late and when I do I am flexi credited for it (and am allowed to take the flexi I've accrued without argument), and I'm a lot less stressed. At present I have the amazing work-life balance that most private sector employees associate with the civil service, but this hasn't always been the case, and I don't expect it to remain the case as my career progresses.

The Alpha Pension is great, but two things to note that aren't often discussed:
- Ignore the "employer contribution" number - what you will get is 2.32% of your career pensionable earnings each year until you die, adjusted for inflation. So say (for the sake of simplicity) you earn exactly £72k per year for 20 years, that's £33,408 per year (adjusted for inflation) from state pension age until you die. It's a great pension, but often people are focused on their "pot", on how much has been paid in, and that's not really how it works.
- Unlike previous incarnations of civil service pensions, you cannot retire and take your pension extremely early. You can pay extra to retire and take your pension up to three years before state pension age. Possibly your other pensions could help tide you over should you choose to retire earlier.

Dazed_and_C0nfused

- Unlike previous incarnations of civil service pensions, you cannot retire and take your pension extremely early. You can pay extra to retire and take your pension up to three years before state pension age. Possibly your other pensions could help tide you over should you choose to retire earlier.

I don't think that's quite right.

You can retire and take your Alpha pension at age 55 if you wish.  Seems pretty early to me.

There is no penalty for doing that although the pension would be actuarially reduced to reflect the fact that you would be asking for it to be 12-13 years longer than it would normally be paid.

horsewithnoname

Dazed_and_C0nfused said:

- Unlike previous incarnations of civil service pensions, you cannot retire and take your pension extremely early. You can pay extra to retire and take your pension up to three years before state pension age. Possibly your other pensions could help tide you over should you choose to retire earlier.

I don't think that's quite right.

You can retire and take your Alpha pension at age 55 if you wish.  Seems pretty early to me.

There is no penalty for doing that although the pension would be actuarially reduced to reflect the fact that you would be asking for it to be 12-13 years longer than it would normally be paid.

That’s right, you can take alpha (with actuarial reduction) from age 55 and you can also buy a reduced pension age of 1, 2 or 3 years in respect of some of your pension and buy extra pension. There is no automatic lump sum, though you can commute pension for a lump sum. Also if your state retirement age goes up, so does your pension age and any reduced pension age that you buy. 

michaels

horsewithnoname said:

Dazed_and_C0nfused said:

- Unlike previous incarnations of civil service pensions, you cannot retire and take your pension extremely early. You can pay extra to retire and take your pension up to three years before state pension age. Possibly your other pensions could help tide you over should you choose to retire earlier.

I don't think that's quite right.

You can retire and take your Alpha pension at age 55 if you wish.  Seems pretty early to me.

There is no penalty for doing that although the pension would be actuarially reduced to reflect the fact that you would be asking for it to be 12-13 years longer than it would normally be paid.

That’s right, you can take alpha (with actuarial reduction) from age 55 and you can also buy a reduced pension age of 1, 2 or 3 years in respect of some of your pension and buy extra pension. There is no automatic lump sum, though you can commute pension for a lump sum. Also if your state retirement age goes up, so does your pension age and any reduced pension age that you buy. 

Worth noting (I missed it) that the TFLS is only 12x the amount of pension given up so unless you have very short life expectancy then it is not worth it despite the tax advantage so effectively there is no 25% TFLS for the alpha pension unlike the DC pension.