Working out civil service widowers pension refund of contributions

jamessanderson

Hi Hive Mind
I am an ex civil servant who plans to retire in May 2026 aged 60. I am a deferred member of the pension scheme. From the MYCSP pension portal calculator I have a fairly good idea of my expected pension, however I have requested what my widower pension refund contributions will be (to no avail at present)
I have never married or been in a civil partnership. Does anyone know if there is a calculator or other formula to enable me to approximate what it might be?

DE_612183

I thought any money gets paid as a lump sum to your estate when you die - I didn't think you could get a refund in advance ( if thats what you are asking? ).

Which scheme are you in?

Marcon

DE_612183 said:

I thought any money gets paid as a lump sum to your estate when you die - I didn't think you could get a refund in advance ( if thats what you are asking? ).

Which scheme are you in?

Has to be Classic - doesn't apply to Alpha.

OP, I don't think there is a simple way of calculating for yourself. If you look at Annex A https://www.civilservicepensionscheme.org.uk/knowledge-centre/pension-schemes/classic-scheme-guide/finding-out-more/ there are several 'unknowns' !

DE_612183

There is also a pdf - here: https://www.civilservicepensionscheme.org.uk/media/yiapsmei/crb-1-april2016.pdf

Sounds like you get the contributions back plus interest...

xylophone

We had a family friend who was a member of the scheme all her working life and remained single.

She received the refund - I recall her mentioning that it was quite a complex calculation so not a figure to estimate for yourself.

Golactico

Concur with Xylophone - my sister was a Civil Servant for about 35 years and was single throughout. The widows pension contributions rebate was a very welcome extra lump sum when she retired, but she only had an idea of how much it was when she formally applied for a pension quotation. It's too person-specific to be able to be estimated by any generic calculator.

atalantalass

Hoping someone who was on this thread might pop back. I appreciate that the figure is too person-specific to estimate. But I would like to know what period is covered for the rebate for someone who unmarried throughout their whole career (starting in the 1980s).

According to this https://www.civilservicepensionscheme.org.uk/your-pension/managing-your-pension/contribution-rates/ up to 30/9/2002 1.5% of pay was the contribution towards widows/er benefits. From 1/10/2002 contributions were a flat rate of 3.5% to cover all pension benefits and from 1/4/2012 the contribution rate changed to be variable dependant on earnings.

Is it just the period up until 20/9/2002 that is covered by the widows/ers pension contributions rebate? Or is there a 1.5% included in the contributions since then that is also refunded?   

hugheskevi

atalantalass said:

Hoping someone who was on this thread might pop back. I appreciate that the figure is too person-specific to estimate. But I would like to know what period is covered for the rebate for someone who unmarried throughout their whole career (starting in the 1980s).

According to this https://www.civilservicepensionscheme.org.uk/your-pension/managing-your-pension/contribution-rates/ up to 30/9/2002 1.5% of pay was the contribution towards widows/er benefits. From 1/10/2002 contributions were a flat rate of 3.5% to cover all pension benefits and from 1/4/2012 the contribution rate changed to be variable dependant on earnings.

Is it just the period up until 20/9/2002 that is covered by the widows/ers pension contributions rebate? Or is there a 1.5% included in the contributions since then that is also refunded?   

Depending on what choice you make for your Remedy decision, the 1.5% refund applies until:

Option 1 (legacy benefits to 2022) - Up to 31st March 2022

Option 2 (alpha benefits from 2015) - Up to 31st March 2015

atalantalass

hugheskevi said:

atalantalass said:

Hoping someone who was on this thread might pop back. I appreciate that the figure is too person-specific to estimate. But I would like to know what period is covered for the rebate for someone who unmarried throughout their whole career (starting in the 1980s).

According to this https://www.civilservicepensionscheme.org.uk/your-pension/managing-your-pension/contribution-rates/ up to 30/9/2002 1.5% of pay was the contribution towards widows/er benefits. From 1/10/2002 contributions were a flat rate of 3.5% to cover all pension benefits and from 1/4/2012 the contribution rate changed to be variable dependant on earnings.

Is it just the period up until 20/9/2002 that is covered by the widows/ers pension contributions rebate? Or is there a 1.5% included in the contributions since then that is also refunded?   

Depending on what choice you make for your Remedy decision, the 1.5% refund applies until:

Option 1 (legacy benefits to 2022) - Up to 31st March 2022

Option 2 (alpha benefits from 2015) - Up to 31st March 2015

Thank you so much (again) for the clear, helpful and speedy response. I will be an option 1 :-)

Incidentally I phoned civil service pensions the other day with a question about my service record, having not managed to get a clear answer to my email sent months ago. Got through and was told my record was complicated. I've been a member since 1989, no breaks in service, no transfers in or out, one change in employer, a few promotions, a slight reduction in hours 10 years ago and that's it. I didn't think that would be particularly complicated but maybe there's something I haven't appreciated. Still trying to get all my ducks in line to make the leap.      

hugheskevi

atalantalass said:

hugheskevi said:

atalantalass said:

Hoping someone who was on this thread might pop back. I appreciate that the figure is too person-specific to estimate. But I would like to know what period is covered for the rebate for someone who unmarried throughout their whole career (starting in the 1980s).

According to this https://www.civilservicepensionscheme.org.uk/your-pension/managing-your-pension/contribution-rates/ up to 30/9/2002 1.5% of pay was the contribution towards widows/er benefits. From 1/10/2002 contributions were a flat rate of 3.5% to cover all pension benefits and from 1/4/2012 the contribution rate changed to be variable dependant on earnings.

Is it just the period up until 20/9/2002 that is covered by the widows/ers pension contributions rebate? Or is there a 1.5% included in the contributions since then that is also refunded?   

Depending on what choice you make for your Remedy decision, the 1.5% refund applies until:

Option 1 (legacy benefits to 2022) - Up to 31st March 2022

Option 2 (alpha benefits from 2015) - Up to 31st March 2015

Thank you so much (again) for the clear, helpful and speedy response. I will be an option 1 :-)

Incidentally I phoned civil service pensions the other day with a question about my service record, having not managed to get a clear answer to my email sent months ago. Got through and was told my record was complicated. I've been a member since 1989, no breaks in service, no transfers in or out, one change in employer, a few promotions, a slight reduction in hours 10 years ago and that's it. I didn't think that would be particularly complicated but maybe there's something I haven't appreciated. Still trying to get all my ducks in line to make the leap.      

Nowadays anyone who started before 2007 is fairly complicated, due to the change to nuvos for post 2007 joiners making things a lot simpler. 

Both nuvos and alpha are very similar, and only depend on pensionable earnings - whether you were part or full time, years of service, etc, doesn't matter. As long as pensionable earnings are correct, then the pension is easy to calculate. Pensionable earnings should be good quality data given it is what drives pay, whereas things like service dates can be less precise (eg leaving employer on a Friday, joining another on a Monday can create a break in service which would impact final salary benefits due to service amount),

Add in all the legacy things like GMP that are no longer with us, and just being a very long record is enough to make it far more complicated than someone who joined after April 2016 (when contracting out ended).

That isn't to say it is especially complicated, just more complicated than shorter records.

Suzycoll

jamessanderson said:

Hi Hive Mind
I am an ex civil servant who plans to retire in May 2026 aged 60. I am a deferred member of the pension scheme. From the MYCSP pension portal calculator I have a fairly good idea of my expected pension, however I have requested what my widower pension refund contributions will be (to no avail at present)
I have never married or been in a civil partnership. Does anyone know if there is a calculator or other formula to enable me to approximate what it might be?

Hi

Funny enough I asked CPS the very same question recently.

The answer is NO - you will only know the value of WPS when you retire & claim CS pension