Civil Service Pension Savings Statement

NickPoole

I've just received my 2025 pension Savings Statement - I've spent many hoours working out what this should be , at least approximately - I have some in Classic (PCSPS) and some in alpha.

The answer I was NOT expecting was that both should show Pension Input Amounts of £0.00 

I'm obviously quite happy if they are both right as it gives me a lot of leeway on Annual Allowance carry forward. But should I trust it? Am I likely to get a correction later showing I did have some pension growth in 2024/25 - alpha pension grows at 2.32% of £66K salary.

Is it safe to just assume it is right - I could go back and say "are you sure" (?)

hugheskevi

There is no reason to assume it is wrong just because both classic and alpha show zero pension input.

The pension input from classic can commonly be negative if your salary increase is lower than inflation (recalling that 2023 September CPI used to revalue the starting amount was 6.7%). Although the pension input in an individual scheme can be a minimum of zero, a negative input amount can be offset against alpha input (note - it can only be offset against alpha, not other pension scheme inputs). This reflects that due to low salary increases, the real value of your classic pension is falling. This has been the case for a long time, so you may have seen zero pension inputs for classic on past statements, but it is only more recently that the negative input could be offset against alpha accrual.

Following 2015 Remedy, you now have more classic pension (up to 31st March 2022), and if the negative classic input is greater than the value of the alpha accrual, both classic and alpha will be shown as zero input.

The lower rate of inflation (Sep 23=6.7%, Sep 24=1.7%) reduces the alpha input due to the nature of the calculation, further helping generate a zero input.

If you queried it, you would be sent a breakdown of the calculation that would set out the negative classic input and the amount of the alpha input. But if your salary increase in 2024 was much lower than the 6.7% inflation figure, it is likely to be correct.