CS Added Pension and AVCS

HouseMartin567

Does anyone have experience of buying both Added Pension and AVCS under the civil service pension scheme?

I have been purchasing Added Pension for a few years but a few months ago decided to split my contributions with AVCS. Deductions have been made as instructed.

However, I’ve just seen on this link that it seems you can do Added Pension or AVCS: https://www.civilservicepensionscheme.org.uk/your-pension/managing-your-pension/increase-your-pension/

I’ve put the query into Civil Service Pensions but it will probably take an age to get an answer, so I just wondered if anyone here definitively knows whether both are possible, or if it’s just one or the other? And if I shouldn’t be doing both and cease AVCS, what would happen to my contributions?

Thanks in advance for any responses.

Universidad

You can definitely do both at the same time, subject to some limits on how much. I've personally done it. (Well, EPA and AVCs, but essentially the same).

What you can't do is change Added Pension / EPA contributions in year - that needs to be April to March... so if you paid them this month, you'll be paying them for at least another year, till March '26. 

As a side note you can also pay Added Pension and EPA contributions at the same time, and I've done that, too, but there's more of a nuanced limit there because they fall within the same allowance.

AVCs on the other hand can be changed in-year if you like.

HouseMartin567

Thanks @Universidad, although the link above says you can buy Added Pension or AVCS, and you can also buy EPA - so I’m not convinced it is essentially the same as your situation. However, if it is one or the other (between Added Pension and AVCS) then there is a process flaw because I am current buying both simultaneously.

I’ll update this thread when I get a response from CSP.

Oppenheimer

You can do both - I do.

Your contributions go to different organisations and are not related whatsoever.

Added Pension to UK Government and AVC to Legal & General.

They are different products for different purposes.

Most civil servants don't do either Added Pension or AVC so someone wanting to do both is really unusual.

Happy saving.

HouseMartin567

Oppenheimer said:

You can do both - I do.

Your contributions go to different organisations and are not related whatsoever.

Added Pension to UK Government and AVC to Legal & General.

They are different products for different purposes.

Most civil servants don't do either Added Pension or AVC so someone wanting to do both is really unusual.

Happy saving.

Many thanks - I was hoping to find someone else also doing both because I got myself in a bit of doubt yesterday  😂

pathsofdarkness

I've been contributing simultaneously to both Alpha Added Pension and the AVC every year since I joined the Civil Service in 2015, so you can definitely do both at the same time. At the end of this year I will almost have maxed out my Alpha Added Pension (but not quite) so that from 2026-27 onwards I intend to switch to EPA-3 and an AVC simultaneously. 

hugheskevi

pathsofdarkness said:

I've been contributing simultaneously to both Alpha Added Pension and the AVC every year since I joined the Civil Service in 2015, so you can definitely do both at the same time. At the end of this year I will almost have maxed out my Alpha Added Pension (but not quite) so that from 2026-27 onwards I intend to switch to EPA-3 and an AVC simultaneously. 

You are aware that it is only the actual value of Added Pension purchased that contributes towards to the cap, and that pension increases are excluded? 

For example, if you had purchased £800 of Added Pension in 2016 and that is now £1,000 due to inflation increases, only £800 of that current value of £1,000 counts toward the cap.

HouseMartin567

Oh wow - I have lots to learn - I didn’t even realise there was a limit on Added Pension, Just checked and I’m over a third of the way there (with plenty of years left to work) so I’m glad I’ve started splitting it with the AVC.

pathsofdarkness

hugheskevi said:

You are aware that it is only the actual value of Added Pension purchased that contributes towards to the cap, and that pension increases are excluded? 

For example, if you had purchased £800 of Added Pension in 2016 and that is now £1,000 due to inflation increases, only £800 of that current value of £1,000 counts toward the cap.

Yup, I learnt that from one of your posts many years ago actually!

Between 2015-16 to the end of 2023-24, I had purchased a total of  £7,109 of Added Pension, of which £6,855 counted towards the limit. 

In 2024-25 I purchased £1,256 of Added Pension (non-adjusted for inflation) and in 2025-26 I am purchasing £1,088.

So by the end of 2025-26 I will have purchased an Added Pension total of £6,855 + £1,256 + £1,088 = £9,199 (just below the max limit of £9,200). Then inflation is added on top of that figure to bump it up (but as you say that doesn't count towards the cap)