NHS Pension, McCloud, etc....

gt568

Hi peeps....

I'm trying to work out some pension stuff for my wife who is absolutely clueless on pensions....

She's been with the NHS as a nurse since 2003, so I think she's in the 95 scheme (as she doesn't think she transfered into the 08, tbc).

Am I right in thinking the following:

1. The 95 scheme pays a tax free lump sum at age 60 that doesn't affect pension income?

2. Like my AF pension she will get a mccloud option offering more 95 (or 08) for the period April '15 - Mar 22?

3. All service for her from '22 will be on 15 pension?

4.  When does the 15 pay out, is it 65 or SPA?

Thanks...

Pat38493

gt568 said:

Hi peeps....

I'm trying to work out some pension stuff for my wife who is absolutely clueless on pensions....

She's been with the NHS as a nurse since 2003, so I think she's in the 95 scheme (as she doesn't think she transfered into the 08, tbc).

Am I right in thinking the following:

1. The 95 scheme pays a tax free lump sum at age 60 that doesn't affect pension income?

2. Like my AF pension she will get a mccloud option offering more 95 (or 08) for the period April '15 - Mar 22?

3. All service for her from '22 will be on 15 pension?

4.  When does the 15 pay out, is it 65 or SPA?

Thanks...

Does she have correspondence and/or access to the NHS pension portal?

The 1995 scheme basically stopped for everybody from April 2022 so she will have been automatically moved to the latest scheme.  However she should still have benefits accrued under the '95 scheme.

I am not a major expert but my wife was in the '95 scheme so I think.....

1. Yes
2. Don't know but probably.
3. From April 22 I think yes.
4. I think it's SPA for the 2015 scheme.

gt568

Getting her to log in to her TRS page is on my to do list, but she is shocking with IT and personal admin!

Great nurse though.

MX5huggy

gt568 said:

Hi peeps....

I'm trying to work out some pension stuff for my wife who is absolutely clueless on pensions....

She's been with the NHS as a nurse since 2003, so I think she's in the 95 scheme (as she doesn't think she transfered into the 08, tbc).

Am I right in thinking the following:

1. The 95 scheme pays a tax free lump sum at age 60 that doesn't affect pension income?

yes

2. Like my AF pension she will get a mccloud option offering more 95 (or 08) for the period April '15 - Mar 22?

Yes. don’t think there will be a choice, just get the better. 

3. All service for her from '22 will be on 15 pension?

Yes

4.  When does the 15 pay out, is it 65 or SPA?

SPA but you can take it early with reductions, option of lump sum but it is poor value. 

Thanks...

Answers above. 

hyubh

MX5huggy said:

gt568 said:

2. Like my AF pension she will get a mccloud option offering more 95 (or 08) for the period April '15 - Mar 22?

Yes. don’t think there will be a choice, just get the better.

Answers above. 

Minor point, but it is a 'deferred choice' (i.e. made on retirement). The LGPS is the one with the underpin.

gt568

Hmmm looking at her 95 benefits looks pretty poor IMO as it only looks at what she earns now, she earned much more in the past when she was full time.

It appears as though she needs to up her hours again and she nears retirement?

Pat38493

gt568 said:

Hmmm looking at her 95 benefits looks pretty poor IMO as it only looks at what she earns now, she earned much more in the past when she was full time.

It appears as though she needs to up her hours again and she nears retirement?

Double check that if I were you.  I think 95 scheme is based on the highest of the last 3 years earnings, but it is adjusted to full time hours, then reduced again for periods of part time working, so you don't get completely hammered for working part time in the last 3 years or whatever.  However I could be wrong so double check.

GrubbyGirl_2

gt568 said:

Hmmm looking at her 95 benefits looks pretty poor IMO as it only looks at what she earns now, she earned much more in the past when she was full time.

It appears as though she needs to up her hours again and she nears retirement?

You're not interpreting that correctly.  It's nothing to do with the hours she works it's the grade she is working at.  The hours she works impacts the rate at which she pays into her pension.  So if she works half time she only pays half the amount that a full time person would pay into their pension so her pension benefits only grows at half the rate of a full time person.  if she retires on the top of a band 7 her pension is based on the full time salary at the top of band 7 (assuming that was the best grade she achieved in the last 3 years) and the amount she gets is determined by the amount of contributions she has made so if she worked half time for 10 years at top of band 7 she would get half the pension of someone who worked the same but full time and she would have only paid half the contributions.

I hope that makes sense!

gt568

GrubbyGirl_2 said:

gt568 said:

Hmmm looking at her 95 benefits looks pretty poor IMO as it only looks at what she earns now, she earned much more in the past when she was full time.

It appears as though she needs to up her hours again and she nears retirement?

You're not interpreting that correctly.  It's nothing to do with the hours she works it's the grade she is working at.  The hours she works impacts the rate at which she pays into her pension.  So if she works half time she only pays half the amount that a full time person would pay into their pension so her pension benefits only grows at half the rate of a full time person.  if she retires on the top of a band 7 her pension is based on the full time salary at the top of band 7 (assuming that was the best grade she achieved in the last 3 years) and the amount she gets is determined by the amount of contributions she has made so if she worked half time for 10 years at top of band 7 she would get half the pension of someone who worked the same but full time and she would have only paid half the contributions.

I hope that makes sense!

I think we are actually saying the same thing here (I can't remember the band) but when she was working full time she was pulling in 45k(ish), this was 5 or so years ago.  She hasn't promoted up a band so is still the same band but for the last 5 years has worked PT and pulls in circa 30k.  So her pension is now based on the 30k surely?

She needs to up her hours to raise her pensionable income?

r6mile

No, I don’t think that’s right, for a final salary scheme what counts is your “full time equivalent” salary. But a year in which you are part time counts for say 0.7 of a year (rather than 1.0). So if your final FTE salary was 50k but you worked 1.0FTE for 10 years but 0.7FTE for another 10, you get 17 years worth (rather than 20).

Flugelhorn

it is as @r6mile says the FT salary that defines the pension, being part time just adds less time to the overall amount of time served.  I did a sessional job that had a high daily and hence high salary at the end of my career and this was the FTE salary that my pension was calculated against