LGPS and teachers pension

lookstraightahead

Hi all

i have an old teachers pension with a mere £10800 in it, and an old LGPS pension with about £30000 in it. I'm paying into another LGPS scheme (different county) with not much in it at all yet.  I've not transferred one to the other.

I'm 55 and have a private pension too. I'm working and intend to do so for the next 10 years on a part time basis.

What can i do with these small pension contributions? I feel like I'll never get a lot from them but I'm contributing each month, and could quite possibly have to transfer to a teachers one again soon. 

I work in FE so depending on my job it is either Teachers or Local Government. 

itsthelittlethings

Is it DC or DB? If it’s DB it doesn’t really make sense to talk about how much there is in it. I have an old LGPS pension after working 2 years term time only, school hours, at one of the lowest grades and it’s worth about £30 a month. I think it’s usually worth leaving a DB where it is because you won’t get the same benefits anywhere else.

lookstraightahead

itsthelittlethings said:

Is it DC or DB? If it’s DB it doesn’t really make sense to talk about how much there is in it. I have an old LGPS pension after working 2 years term time only, school hours, at one of the lowest grades and it’s worth about £30 a month. I think it’s usually worth leaving a DB where it is because you won’t get the same benefits anywhere else.

Not sure but you're probably right. It's just whether it's worth still contributing to not much rather than sticking my £100 contribution a month somewhere else 

itsthelittlethings

lookstraightahead said:

itsthelittlethings said:

Is it DC or DB? If it’s DB it doesn’t really make sense to talk about how much there is in it. I have an old LGPS pension after working 2 years term time only, school hours, at one of the lowest grades and it’s worth about £30 a month. I think it’s usually worth leaving a DB where it is because you won’t get the same benefits anywhere else.

Not sure but you're probably right. It's just whether it's worth still contributing to not much rather than sticking my £100 contribution a month somewhere else 

My understanding is you can’t do much better than a DB pension and the LGPS is one of the best.

Universidad

lookstraightahead said:

Not sure but you're probably right. It's just whether it's worth still contributing to not much rather than sticking my £100 contribution a month somewhere else 

The question is not "can I do better with this contribution?" The answer to that is an easy "No". 

You absolutely can't expect to do better with that money than where it is going now.

The real question is "will I have enough to retire when I want to, without making additional pension provisions?"

That's a more complicated question, and depends on a lot of factors. The first thing to understand is what your LGPS and Teachers pensions are really worth. 

Putting it in terms of "10800" and "30000" implies a misunderstanding. Is that the transfer value of the pensions? Or is that how much they will pay you in retirement per year?

Sarahspangles

lookstraightahead said:

Hi all

i have an old teachers pension with a mere £10800 in it, and an old LGPS pension with about £30000 in it. I'm paying into another LGPS scheme (different county) with not much in it at all yet.  I've not transferred one to the other.

I'm 55 and have a private pension too. I'm working and intend to do so for the next 10 years on a part time basis.

What can i do with these small pension contributions? I feel like I'll never get a lot from them but I'm contributing each month, and could quite possibly have to transfer to a teachers one again soon. 

I work in FE so depending on my job it is either Teachers or Local Government. 

Similar here, I will have at least three DB pensions paying out in retirement. I don’t have the option of combining them - have you checked the actual position with yours? I think if your next move was LGPS to TPS you would be able to combine those two.

However, two of my DB pensions commence before State Pension age and with top ups from my SIPP give me the option of retiring early. Other friends have taken the opportunity to go part time once a pension commenced.

Your old pensions sound a bit unloved - at the end of the day if you’re getting multiple small monthly payments does it matter? With one of mine I’ll possibly be looking to see if there’s a way to receive it annually. I also know some ‘trivial’ pensions will pay out as a lump sum.

lookstraightahead

Sarahspangles said:

lookstraightahead said:

Hi all

i have an old teachers pension with a mere £10800 in it, and an old LGPS pension with about £30000 in it. I'm paying into another LGPS scheme (different county) with not much in it at all yet.  I've not transferred one to the other.

I'm 55 and have a private pension too. I'm working and intend to do so for the next 10 years on a part time basis.

What can i do with these small pension contributions? I feel like I'll never get a lot from them but I'm contributing each month, and could quite possibly have to transfer to a teachers one again soon. 

I work in FE so depending on my job it is either Teachers or Local Government. 

Similar here, I will have at least three DB pensions paying out in retirement. I don’t have the option of combining them - have you checked the actual position with yours? I think if your next move was LGPS to TPS you would be able to combine those two.

However, two of my DB pensions commence before State Pension age and with top ups from my SIPP give me the option of retiring early. Other friends have taken the opportunity to go part time once a pension commenced.

Your old pensions sound a bit unloved - at the end of the day if you’re getting multiple small monthly payments does it matter? With one of mine I’ll possibly be looking to see if there’s a way to receive it annually. I also know some ‘trivial’ pensions will pay out as a lump sum.

Thank you. I will have a better look this week. A while ago my teachers one was below 10000 and I think I could have taken it as a trivial pension then. I keep swapping and changing my jobs

Dazed_and_C0nfused

lookstraightahead said:

Sarahspangles said:

lookstraightahead said:

Hi all

i have an old teachers pension with a mere £10800 in it, and an old LGPS pension with about £30000 in it. I'm paying into another LGPS scheme (different county) with not much in it at all yet.  I've not transferred one to the other.

I'm 55 and have a private pension too. I'm working and intend to do so for the next 10 years on a part time basis.

What can i do with these small pension contributions? I feel like I'll never get a lot from them but I'm contributing each month, and could quite possibly have to transfer to a teachers one again soon. 

I work in FE so depending on my job it is either Teachers or Local Government. 

Similar here, I will have at least three DB pensions paying out in retirement. I don’t have the option of combining them - have you checked the actual position with yours? I think if your next move was LGPS to TPS you would be able to combine those two.

However, two of my DB pensions commence before State Pension age and with top ups from my SIPP give me the option of retiring early. Other friends have taken the opportunity to go part time once a pension commenced.

Your old pensions sound a bit unloved - at the end of the day if you’re getting multiple small monthly payments does it matter? With one of mine I’ll possibly be looking to see if there’s a way to receive it annually. I also know some ‘trivial’ pensions will pay out as a lump sum.

Thank you. I will have a better look this week. A while ago my teachers one was below 10000 and I think I could have taken it as a trivial pension then. I keep swapping and changing my jobs

Is this teachers pension a defined contribution scheme (pot of money) and not the usual TPS defined benefit scheme (pension paid per the scheme rules)??

Sarahspangles

lookstraightahead said:

Sarahspangles said:

Your old pensions sound a bit unloved - at the end of the day if you’re getting multiple small monthly payments does it matter? With one of mine I’ll possibly be looking to see if there’s a way to receive it annually. I also know some ‘trivial’ pensions will pay out as a lump sum.

Thank you. I will have a better look this week. A while ago my teachers one was below 10000 and I think I could have taken it as a trivial pension then. I keep swapping and changing my jobs

If your teachers’ pension is the TPS DB scheme it’s worth checking how much they would allow as a ‘trivial commutation lump sum’. Note that the ‘small pots’ you see people referring to are slightly different.

I think the deemed value of your LGPS pensions will already exceed those schemes’ limit for trivial commutation, particularly if they are based on the combined value. Anyway, lump sums are only relevant if you would benefit from e.g. paying off that last bit of mortgage.

I put off getting my head round my pension provision for a bit too long. And then found I was in a better position than I expected.

saucer

Universidad said:

lookstraightahead said:

Not sure but you're probably right. It's just whether it's worth still contributing to not much rather than sticking my £100 contribution a month somewhere else 

The question is not "can I do better with this contribution?" The answer to that is an easy "No". 

You absolutely can't expect to do better with that money than where it is going now.

The real question is "will I have enough to retire when I want to, without making additional pension provisions?"

That's a more complicated question, and depends on a lot of factors. The first thing to understand is what your LGPS and Teachers pensions are really worth. 

Putting it in terms of "10800" and "30000" implies a misunderstanding. Is that the transfer value of the pensions? Or is that how much they will pay you in retirement per year?

This ^ is exactly what I’d have said