Civil service pension - retirement model problems

Civvie1984

Hi all - I’m really new to this forum, and as a heads up I’m also a bit green when it comes to pensions. My query is whether anyone has noticed anything a bit odd with the retirement modeller on MyCSP. I tend to look at it a couple of times a year to scope out my retirement options, and previously it was showing something like a healthy £30k per annum if I retired at 55, and really healthy if I dragged the cursor all the way to aged 75. Now it is showing much, much less than that. I’m an existing civil servant, I’m aged 40 and have been in the civil service scheme for circa 12 years. So I’ve got a bit of NUVOS and now I’m on Alpha. My latest ABS shows circa £16k on Alpha and circa £5k on NUVOS. But, and this is where I reveal myself to be a bit green, I understand this to be my pension if I don’t add anything further, which is why it increases every year in the ABS, in my case by around £3k. The retirement modeller assumes - as I thought anyway - that I’d carry on contributing up to the date I retire (as chosen in the model), hence it looked pretty healthy. But ever since the option A and B thing was added, my pension is showing a lot less. For example, if I say I will retire at aged 75 and take zero lump sum, it is only showing £27k per annum. As I said, that is a lot lower than it was showing previously, which has really got me worrying. Has anyone else experienced this, or is it possible I’m just reading the mode wrong? Thanks so much. 

Emmia

This is a query which has arisen several times recently in the CS and I think is to do with the impact of the 2015 remedy. 

MyCSP probably has an FAQ on it. 

Wobble101

Hi, I posted a question a week or so back that included a similar point - that the CSP models I was getting now were much lower than the ones I’d noted down a year or so ago. I haven’t investigated further - just wanted to share so you’re aware you aren’t alone here. I’d love to understand the reason. I’ve only been in the CS for 5 years or so, so the 2015 remedy doesn’t relate to me. 

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6576256/planning-for-early-retirement-getting-conflicting-information-re-civil-service-alpha-pension#latest

Emmia

Wobble101 said:

Hi, I posted a question a week or so back that included a similar point - that the CSP models I was getting now were much lower than the ones I’d noted down a year or so ago. I haven’t investigated further - just wanted to share so you’re aware you aren’t alone here. I’d love to understand the reason. I’ve only been in the CS for 5 years or so, so the 2015 remedy doesn’t relate to me. 

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6576256/planning-for-early-retirement-getting-conflicting-information-re-civil-service-alpha-pension#latest

Have you raised this question with CS pensions?

Wobble101

Prompted by this exchange I have just submitted a query about it via the 'contact us' page: Contact us - Civil Service Pension Scheme. I focused on the considerable discrepancy between my estimated pension at 65 (a difference of £6.5k). I also used the modeller again and found that the estimated pension at 65 is £50 higher than it was when I used the modeller before Xmas - a tiny amount but I don't understand why it would change. 

I had a look for FAQs covering this but could not find one. 

Worth you also putting in a query. 

Wobble101

Emmia said:

Wobble101 said:

Hi, I posted a question a week or so back that included a similar point - that the CSP models I was getting now were much lower than the ones I’d noted down a year or so ago. I haven’t investigated further - just wanted to share so you’re aware you aren’t alone here. I’d love to understand the reason. I’ve only been in the CS for 5 years or so, so the 2015 remedy doesn’t relate to me. 

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6576256/planning-for-early-retirement-getting-conflicting-information-re-civil-service-alpha-pension#latest

Have you raised this question with CS pensions?

Sorry, my point above was aimed at the original poster, not Emmia!

Emmia

Wobble101 said:

Emmia said:

Wobble101 said:

Hi, I posted a question a week or so back that included a similar point - that the CSP models I was getting now were much lower than the ones I’d noted down a year or so ago. I haven’t investigated further - just wanted to share so you’re aware you aren’t alone here. I’d love to understand the reason. I’ve only been in the CS for 5 years or so, so the 2015 remedy doesn’t relate to me. 

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6576256/planning-for-early-retirement-getting-conflicting-information-re-civil-service-alpha-pension#latest

Have you raised this question with CS pensions?

Sorry, my point above was aimed at the original poster, not Emmia!

No worries - I'd really raise this with the actual CS pensions to get an official /specific answer which you can refer to in future if needed.

Wobble101

I've just looked back further in my notes and have a screengrab of retirement modeller calculations from 2023 which are almost identical to those I got in August 2024 before the new modeller came in. So either the new modeller is correct and the old one has been providing really misleading estimates, or the new one has a problem. 

michaels

At retirement age, should be current amount plus 2.32% of current income x number of year to statutory retirement age

Earlier or later should be current plus 2.32% of current salary times years worked at that date adjusted up or down by the table factors

Civvie1984

To give more information, and only to show the context, I’m earning currently circa £90k per annum, obviously a generous salary. It just cannot be right that if I retired at 75, with another 35 years of contributions added to me existing 12 years, and taking no lump sum, I received a pension of £27k. I’d genuinely leave the civil service if this were the case. As I said, previously the model was showing an annual pension of between £30k and £80k, depending when I retired and what lump sum I took, so either that was a massive error or the mode is doing some strange things now. I’ve messaged my csp but I don’t know how responsive they are. So confused. 

Dazed_and_C0nfused

Civvie1984 said:

To give more information, and only to show the context, I’m earning currently circa £90k per annum, obviously a generous salary. It just cannot be right that if I retired at 75, with another 35 years of contributions added to me existing 12 years, and taking no lump sum, I received a pension of £27k. I’d genuinely leave the civil service if this were the case. As I said, previously the model was showing an annual pension of between £30k and £80k, depending when I retired and what lump sum I took, so either that was a massive error or the mode is doing some strange things now. I’ve messaged my csp but I don’t know how responsive they are. So confused. 

Correct.

On £90k pensionable salary you are accruing £2,088/year.

So just from the next 35 years you would accrue £73k.  And that's without any revaluation for inflation.