SPPA Remedial Service Statements

Jingal

These have now started to arrive. My wife has just received hers (she's a nurse) and I'm sure mine will be here soon (I'm a teacher). We both retired some time ago so fall into the category where we have a choice between the status quo or choosing the care remedy. As far as we can see there is a small benefit (about £160 pa) in changing. My question is does anyone know of any hidden pitfalls in making the change?
Any general observations about this change as well as contributions from those who have made their choice (and why the made the choice they did) would be most welcome.

Lowtrawler

My wife is still waiting on her RSS but I believe the most important consideration you will need to have is the date you expect to retire. As a generalisation, the earlier you expect to retire, the better the care remedy will look. The later, the better for status quo.

If you have taken out any Additional Pension arrangements, these will also be impacted by the choice and so could complicate the RSS based decision you have to make.

It is also worth considering death benefits. In the NHS 1995 scheme, a spouse retains 50% pension while under the 2015 scheme, it is 33.75% and so your choice will need to balance this out.

Jingal

Thanks for that Lowtrawler. Date of retirement is not an issue for my wife or I as we both retired nine years ago. I am still awaiting my RSS but my wife has had hers and it seems to be a case of swings and roundabouts with a small gain on her monthly pension but a small reduction in the Survivor adult pension. Will be interesting to see how mine pans out as the figures involved are much higher.
Thanks again.

Lowtrawler

Jingal said:

Thanks for that Lowtrawler. Date of retirement is not an issue for my wife or I as we both retired nine years ago. I am still awaiting my RSS but my wife has had hers and it seems to be a case of swings and roundabouts with a small gain on her monthly pension but a small reduction in the Survivor adult pension. Will be interesting to see how mine pans out as the figures involved are much higher.
Thanks again.

As you retired 9 years ago, any difference is going to be very small. It really only impacts any pension earned from 2015 onwards - the remedy is really asking you whether you wish to keep that under the new arrangements (status quo) or revert it to the older CARE scheme.