CSP, McCloud, and partial retirement - help please!

indiasign

Hi everyone, wondering if I can get some help/advice on my CSP issues.

I’ve been in the CS since 2013,  first 2 years in Premium (transferred in under a special arrangement from a previous NDGB), then in Alpha since 2015. 

Based on the MyCSP retirement modeller, at age 65 I was looking at figures of £3540 from Premium and £9286 from Alpha.

But I intend to retire early, at around 63, so the adjusted figures were still £3540 Premium and £6832 from Alpha.

I’m 60 next month, and had decided I wanted to partially retire and take the Premium element of my pension, and drop my hours to avoid abatement, and I have based all of my projections on those figures

I’ve now received my partial retirement quote from My CSP, and of course it has come with two options, based on the McCloud Remedy, which has completely thrown me!

The McCloud option A gives me a revised Premium figure of £6433 and a “balance from your Alpha account” figure of £1432, which is then reduced by an early payment factor of 0.7, to £1006

Now, I never intended to take any Alpha element at this stage, so I’m going to defer that and only take the Premium payment.

But I am confused by this reference to “balance from your Alpha account”, and I can’t work out how much Alpha payment I will be likely to get when I reach 63

The McCloud option B gives me figures of £1429 Premium and £5766 from Alpha (reduced from £8202), so the total payments are only about £300 apart, but like I say, I hadn’t wanted to take any Alpha payment yet, so Option A is what I intend to go with, but need some clarification about the Alpha position.

Can any CSP experts make it any clearer for me?

Thanks in advance

Dazed_and_C0nfused

Is it possible that the "balance from your Alpha account" is the amount accrued in Alpha from 6 April 2022 to the date the statement was prepared?

Basically factoring in that you are foregoing the first 7 years in Alpha in return for having those 7 years in the Premium scheme?

If you have your 2023 Civil Service pension statement that should show what you accrued in Alpha in the year to 5 April 2023 and give a clue as to whether they "balance" could be for that period plus the months from April 2023 to when your recent correspondence was produced?

indiasign

Thanks for that - I’ve had a look at my latest statement, and it still showed the Premium element at £3540, while the Alpha element was £4779

Taking the revalued Premium figure of £6433 off the total of those two leaves £1886, so it doesn’t seem to be a direct match to the “balance” figure of £1432, but I assume that’s because the modeller is looking ahead 3 years, whereas the figures in the quote are “here and now”

Either way, I think you’re right that the McCloud Remedy has simply shifted those 7 years into Premium rather than Alpha.

I suppose it means more money now, rather than later  😀 (and thankfully isn’t so much more that it triggers any abatement rule!)

peter3hg

Were you in a different public sector pension scheme before being in the Civil Service?
To be eligible for the remedy you normally had to be in the pension scheme from 31st March 2012. If you joined later then you aren't eligible unless you joined from another eligible public sector pension.
If this isn't the case with you then I would get them to double check you are eligible before taking any further action.

Crystalballpete

I was in Nuvos from 2011 then alpha from 2019 until they messed with it last year  and changed ny aloha date to April 2022. Now the new modeller gives me options A and B but BOTH ONLY show my ALPHA figures like I have never been in Nuvos. 

Any ideas as its radio silence from the help team