Civil Service Pension and Retirement Modeller

The_Bookman

I wonder if anyone familiar with the Civil Service Pension scheme and the MyCSP Retirement Modeller could possibly explain why there is such a massive disparity in pension and commutation (lump sum) between the retirement ages of 66-68 illustrated below, taken from the Modeller.

The individual concerned joined the CS in 2009 and attains State Pension Age in September 2026. The Modeller is quite inflexible and works only on whole years, i.e. it is not possible to see at what point between the ages of 67 - 68 the sums begin to increase again.

Thanks very much in anticipation

Dmptogo

Retirement modeller doesn’t work for me been waiting weeks for a reply.Due to retire in Dec 

indiasign

That looks very odd! I would have expected the figures for 66 and 67 to be the other way round, so I think something has gone wrong with the modeller 

Wobble101

There are a few threads on here about problems with the retirement modeller. I’m concerned because I’m getting totally different figures for scenarios I’d previously looked at in early 2024. The modeller wasn’t working at all last time I looked. 

It’s so poor isn’t it - if ever there was a time you needed confidence in the estimates you were getting it’s when you are trying to decide about retirement options. 

You can put in a query pointing out the issue - but a number of us have and have nothing back. 

Wobble101

Just wondering if anyone has had any further experience of or thoughts on this? I’ve not had a reply from MyCSP or my HR but will chase… 

strawb_shortcake

I've been on the pension portal today and modeller seems to be updated and more aligned to the results I was getting previously getting 

Wobble101

Thanks @strawb_shortcake. I’ve just had a look and my estimates haven’t changed from the ones I’d had recently (which were markedly lower than the previous ones upon which I’d made some preliminary plans). I’m now suspecting the earlier ones are the incorrect ones but it would be great to have more clarity - I’ve still heard nothing from Mycsp…  

Wobble101

Someone’s ears were burning - I just got the following reply:

“I note that you are paying an EPA. The retirement modeller is a generic tool that suits most members but is not suitable for members with an EPA and we recommend members with an EPA refer to their Annual Benefits Statements to estimate their retirement. WE have pension calculators on the public website for maximum lump sum and early retirement:

https://www.civilservicepensionscheme.org.uk/knowledge-centre/tools-and-calculators/pension-calculators/

I’ll take a look and see if these help - it does look as though that section of the website has been improved so fingers crossed… 

DrWillCUNow

I've had some very confusing results from the modeller - on my wife's 2024 pension statement she has a lump sum listed as £29,679 but on the modeller it's showing as £220,292. I mean I can accept a few thousand either way for differences in accounting dates, but £29k compared with £220 is just ludicrous!

Dazed_and_C0nfused

DrWillCUNow said:

I've had some very confusing results from the modeller - on my wife's 2024 pension statement she has a lump sum listed as £29,679 but on the modeller it's showing as £220,292. I mean I can accept a few thousand either way for differences in accounting dates, but £29k compared with £220 is just ludicrous!

Mistakes happen 😉

DrWillCUNow

Well as long as the £220k arrives rather than the £29 I'm not going to complain, but it's not exactly good for working out how much you will have!