Working out civil service widowers pension refund of contributions

mindymoles

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81545298#Comment_81545298

@atalantalass I’ve just received my CS pension quote and was looking for comments on the widow’s contribution refund … then saw your comment about being an Option 1. Can I ask what made you choose this option? I’m bamboozled by the options 🤯

davidr1964

If It helps anyone, I was in the civil service for 40 years (1984 to 2024) remained single and received almost £11k as my WPS refund. This was all in the Classic Scheme. (I never went onto Alpha. It was a "by analogy" scheme)

horsewithnoname

haven’t read the whole thread so sorry if I’m repeating it. You get back the 1.5% WPS contributions that you paid in Classic service, it’s then upped by interest at versions rates and an amount is deducted in case you subsequently marry.

https://gadfactorguidancehub.co.uk/guidance/csps_gb/other-scheme-specific/csps_gb__pcsps__widowers-pension-scheme-wps-refund-classic/methodology/introduction

Tells you all about it.

Your McCloud choice will make 7 years worth of difference as you don’t get it for alpha (or premium or nuvos).

When (🤞) you get your quote it should give you the two amounts of WPS refund

atalantalass

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82076710#Comment_82076710

Hey - I am really not the best person to ask about any of this, sorry. But to answer your question, it was in response to a message earlier on this thread where option 1 was to stay with legacy benefits to 2022, option 2 was to opt for alpha for the 2015 - 2022 years. I'm pretty certain it will be better for me to stay with legacy benefits. However I was in classic plus and not classic. It is only classic service that gets you the WPS refund. For those whose legacy scheme was all classic, you may well need the figures to work out what the best decision is. If you are on FB the Civil Service Pensions - Help and Advice group is good. There's a lot of helpful info there and just today there was a detailed post about WPS refunds and an FOI that was asked.

chubsta

I retired a few years back, although I was well on top of my pension calculations, to the point where I was actually able to correct a very minor mistake MyCSP had made, working out the Widows and Orphans bit was just too complicated for me. In the end I got £9000 after the, I think, 25% reduction in case I get married in the future.

antonic

I retired in Nov 2025 after 37 years service (25 1/2 years Classic and 11.5 years Alpha) and my WCPS was calculagted as follows

Refundable Contributions £8357.20

Plus interest £3149.91

Less Premium Payment £1884.42

Total Contributions Refund Payable £8622.69

(I was an AO during my Classic service).

Tinstaafl

From what I can deduce (I'm no expert!), the factor that applies appears to be 0.46 (assuming no ill-health) in respect of those that retire after 60 (for Classic) - the factor is obviously higher for those who retire before NPA. The factor is applied to the survivor's year 1 pension (50% for Classic) and that's the 'insurance premium' that is deducted from the WPS refund value.