My initial plan to retire at 59 hoping for some advice

swindiff

Twigwidge said:

swindiff said:

If I continue this on at 6 month increments, it is clear that the age of 60 is the threshold which has by far the biggest impact on annual pension.  The increments start to get bigger once the late retirement factors start to kick in beyond 65, but they still pale into insignificance compared to the change at 60.

Age	Ann. Pens.	Delta
59.80	£ 19,100.00
59.90	£ 19,225.00	£    125.00
59.10	£ 19,342.00	£    117.00
59.11	£ 19,474.00	£    132.00
60.00	£ 21,514.00	£ 2,040.00
60.10	£ 21,605.00	£       91.00
60.20	£ 21,690.00	£       85.00
60.30	£ 21,774.00	£       84.00
60.40	£ 21,860.00	£       86.00
60.50	£ 21,951.00	£       91.00
60.60	£ 22,029.00	£       78.00
61.00	£ 22,558.00	£    529.00
61.60	£ 23,128.00	£    570.00
62.00	£ 23,702.00	£    574.00
62.60	£ 24,317.00	£    615.00
63.00	£ 24,951.00	£    634.00
63.60	£ 25,617.00	£    666.00
64.00	£ 26,308.00	£    691.00
64.60	£ 27,040.00	£    732.00
65.00	£ 27,845.00	£    805.00
65.60	£ 28,973.00	£ 1,128.00
66.00	£ 30,127.00	£ 1,154.00
66.60	£ 31,326.00	£ 1,199.00
67.00	£ 32,530.00	£ 1,204.00

The age is Year and Month, not a decimal figure.

Yes I get that same massive increase on the modeller between 59 and 11 months and 60. It seems an incredibly unfair to have this cliff edge ERF applied. I did query this with one of the pensions team in work and she seemed to think that if you exit through voluntary severance that some of the ERF may be waived by USS. However I have looked high and low on the USS website and cannot find any information on this, I have asked USS on their online question form if any ERF is waived with voluntary severance so hopefully I may get a reply soon. 
I have been working my way slowly through the USS General discussion thread and in a reply to another query @ussdave says "You could consider trying to get voluntary severance as that may allow you to draw your pension without any early retirement factors" which does seem to tie in with the pension team at my uni mentioned.
Even if I have to take the hit I will still leave on 31st July but it would be great if there is a way around this, I am also exploring the posibility in work of perhaps deferring severance by a couple of months by reducing my contracted hours but not sure if the Uni will allow this.

I am pretty sure I have asked this question before from USS and the answer was that redundancy made no difference.  I have been searching my old emails, but I can't seem to find it.

Twigwidge

swindiff said:

Twigwidge said:

swindiff said:

If I continue this on at 6 month increments, it is clear that the age of 60 is the threshold which has by far the biggest impact on annual pension.  The increments start to get bigger once the late retirement factors start to kick in beyond 65, but they still pale into insignificance compared to the change at 60.

Age	Ann. Pens.	Delta
59.80	£ 19,100.00
59.90	£ 19,225.00	£    125.00
59.10	£ 19,342.00	£    117.00
59.11	£ 19,474.00	£    132.00
60.00	£ 21,514.00	£ 2,040.00
60.10	£ 21,605.00	£       91.00
60.20	£ 21,690.00	£       85.00
60.30	£ 21,774.00	£       84.00
60.40	£ 21,860.00	£       86.00
60.50	£ 21,951.00	£       91.00
60.60	£ 22,029.00	£       78.00
61.00	£ 22,558.00	£    529.00
61.60	£ 23,128.00	£    570.00
62.00	£ 23,702.00	£    574.00
62.60	£ 24,317.00	£    615.00
63.00	£ 24,951.00	£    634.00
63.60	£ 25,617.00	£    666.00
64.00	£ 26,308.00	£    691.00
64.60	£ 27,040.00	£    732.00
65.00	£ 27,845.00	£    805.00
65.60	£ 28,973.00	£ 1,128.00
66.00	£ 30,127.00	£ 1,154.00
66.60	£ 31,326.00	£ 1,199.00
67.00	£ 32,530.00	£ 1,204.00

The age is Year and Month, not a decimal figure.

Yes I get that same massive increase on the modeller between 59 and 11 months and 60. It seems an incredibly unfair to have this cliff edge ERF applied. I did query this with one of the pensions team in work and she seemed to think that if you exit through voluntary severance that some of the ERF may be waived by USS. However I have looked high and low on the USS website and cannot find any information on this, I have asked USS on their online question form if any ERF is waived with voluntary severance so hopefully I may get a reply soon. 
I have been working my way slowly through the USS General discussion thread and in a reply to another query @ussdave says "You could consider trying to get voluntary severance as that may allow you to draw your pension without any early retirement factors" which does seem to tie in with the pension team at my uni mentioned.
Even if I have to take the hit I will still leave on 31st July but it would be great if there is a way around this, I am also exploring the posibility in work of perhaps deferring severance by a couple of months by reducing my contracted hours but not sure if the Uni will allow this.

I am pretty sure I have asked this question before from USS and the answer was that redundancy made no difference.  I have been searching my old emails, but I can't seem to find it.

No worries, USS have said they will reply in 5 working days

Marcon

If you've already accepted a severance package, it's unlikely your employer will be willing to fork out extra to pay for you to receive an unreduced pension - but there's never anything lost by asking.

Twigwidge

Marcon said:

If you've already accepted a severance package, it's unlikely your employer will be willing to fork out extra to pay for you to receive an unreduced pension - but there's never anything lost by asking.

Yes just chancing my arm, if you don't ask and all that...as I mentioned not holding out much hope

ussdave

Twigwidge said:

swindiff said:

If I continue this on at 6 month increments, it is clear that the age of 60 is the threshold which has by far the biggest impact on annual pension.  The increments start to get bigger once the late retirement factors start to kick in beyond 65, but they still pale into insignificance compared to the change at 60.

Age	Ann. Pens.	Delta
59.80	£ 19,100.00
59.90	£ 19,225.00	£    125.00
59.10	£ 19,342.00	£    117.00
59.11	£ 19,474.00	£    132.00
60.00	£ 21,514.00	£ 2,040.00
60.10	£ 21,605.00	£       91.00
60.20	£ 21,690.00	£       85.00
60.30	£ 21,774.00	£       84.00
60.40	£ 21,860.00	£       86.00
60.50	£ 21,951.00	£       91.00
60.60	£ 22,029.00	£       78.00
61.00	£ 22,558.00	£    529.00
61.60	£ 23,128.00	£    570.00
62.00	£ 23,702.00	£    574.00
62.60	£ 24,317.00	£    615.00
63.00	£ 24,951.00	£    634.00
63.60	£ 25,617.00	£    666.00
64.00	£ 26,308.00	£    691.00
64.60	£ 27,040.00	£    732.00
65.00	£ 27,845.00	£    805.00
65.60	£ 28,973.00	£ 1,128.00
66.00	£ 30,127.00	£ 1,154.00
66.60	£ 31,326.00	£ 1,199.00
67.00	£ 32,530.00	£ 1,204.00

The age is Year and Month, not a decimal figure.

Yes I get that same massive increase on the modeller between 59 and 11 months and 60. It seems an incredibly unfair to have this cliff edge ERF applied. I did query this with one of the pensions team in work and she seemed to think that if you exit through voluntary severance that some of the ERF may be waived by USS. However I have looked high and low on the USS website and cannot find any information on this, I have asked USS on their online question form if any ERF is waived with voluntary severance so hopefully I may get a reply soon. 
I have been working my way slowly through the USS General discussion thread and in a reply to another query @ussdave says "You could consider trying to get voluntary severance as that may allow you to draw your pension without any early retirement factors" which does seem to tie in with the pension team at my uni mentioned.
Even if I have to take the hit I will still leave on 31st July but it would be great if there is a way around this, I am also exploring the posibility in work of perhaps deferring severance by a couple of months by reducing my contracted hours but not sure if the Uni will allow this.

In all honesty I think that is more common in LGPS (and rare even then).  At one point I thought it was a regular thing for USS but at my institution at least it doesn't appear to be.

swindiff

It used to be a regular thing many years ago, in fact at our university there were cases of people being made redundant early and having their pensions enhanced to what they would have been had they retired at normal pension age.  I know someone who was made redundant at 50 and had his pension enhanced to what it would have been had he retired at 65.  I don't know whether the university picked up the tab for this or if USS did.  There were then of course many cases of senior lecturers being made professor just before their retirement date to take full advantage of the final salary.

Twigwidge

swindiff said:

It used to be a regular thing many years ago, in fact at our university there were cases of people being made redundant early and having their pensions enhanced to what they would have been had they retired at normal pension age.  I know someone who was made redundant at 50 and had his pension enhanced to what it would have been had he retired at 65.  I don't know whether the university picked up the tab for this or if USS did.  There were then of course many cases of senior lecturers being made professor just before their retirement date to take full advantage of the final salary.

Yes a colleague had a severance package around 10 years ago that not only gave him 1.5 years salary but also 7 years of pension top-up, unfortunately for me those days are long gone!!

Anyhow I hope my plan will carry me through to state pension age 

Albermarle

Twigwidge said:

GunJack said:

Just be aware you may have to pay for a couple of years of voluntary NI (post 2016) years to top up to full state pension if you're not planning on any further paid work once you pack in the uni job...

Thanks @GunJack, yes I will definitly pay the two final voluntary NI contributions that I need to get full State Pension, I will aim to buy one each year for the first 2 years after I retire in case they increase the charges 

Even if they double the charges it would still be a bargain.