NHS Pension

Purplelady65

I’m sorry to hear it would be a struggle to pay into the NHS pension scheme. Unfortunately a lot of NHS employees are not in the NHS scheme for that very reason. However you are missing out on free money in the future. Is there some way you could view it as an essential bill that you have to pay somehow rather than an added extra? Could you increase your income in some way? Could you work an extra shift every couple of weeks via staff bank? Are there any opportunities to apply for a Band 4 Nurse Associate role? Your future self will thank you if you could somehow find a way to make the payments now. 

Sarah69

Hi, thanks for all comments. I earn currently £26,598 basic pay, Saturday and Sunday are different rates. The pension takes 6.5%. I do bank shifts when I can but with elderly parents needing help I can do very many. 

DRS1

I bet I am the only person reading this thinking "Stick the £50 into premium bonds and keep your fingers crossed each month".

Purplelady65

Sarah69 said:

Hi, thanks for all comments. I earn currently £26,598 basic pay, Saturday and Sunday are different rates. The pension takes 6.5%. I do bank shifts when I can but with elderly parents needing help I can do very many. 

Don’t forget the 6.5% is the gross figure so it would be a lot less than that in terms of your take home pay. The employer’s contribution is 23.7% to your pension. 

JoeCrystal

I went through your posts, and as I understand, you are 56 or 57 years old. I did see that you asked before and again, you were told to join the pension scheme a few years ago.

Assuming you opted in and worked for ten years, you build up a pension which is 1/54 of your pensionable pay. Assuming you pay for ten years' service, and assuming your salary stayed the same in real term. Your annual pension is reviewed in today's term PLUS 1.4% on top.

You can expect an annual pension by 67 which is  £5,247.74 per year for the rest of your life. In exchange of paying £1,383.12 per year or £115.26 per month net. Sure, your salary will go from £1,889.22 to £1,773.96 per month, but the knowledge of getting an actual index-linked pension for life.

So you pay £13,831.2 net contribution (if nothing changes) over the course of the next decade, you can expect all your contributions back in three years or so (ignoring taxes) and then the rest of your life, free money pretty much. It is like winning money!

I can see that you are living hand-to-mouth, but I am begging you, please find some way to know if you can afford it, normally, I am not a very nice person when dealing with extremely generous public sector pension schemes and the fact that the staff do not appreciate and I utterly despised the lack of awareness of how easy they have it and that my tax money get spent on paying such unfunded pensions.

However, Sarah69, that doesn't mean I don't think they should sign up for it. The NHS pension is there for a reason, to help you to have a retirement that is befitting you. Please at least make an effort at opting into it, you've seen posts that it is very reasonable and affordable. However, bear in mind that you are on the edge of 6.5% to 8.5% brackets so I want to warn you about it in advance. I would also suggest checking your State Pension forecast just to confirm that you are actually getting the full state pension by 67.

Can you at least look into the possibility rather than dismissing it every time you are asked about it? I am sure we can all help in looking at the expenses and so on if needed!

GrubbyGirl_2

Sarah69 said:

Hi, thanks for all comments. I earn currently £26,598 basic pay, Saturday and Sunday are different rates. The pension takes 6.5%. I do bank shifts when I can but with elderly parents needing help I can do very many. 

Your pension contributions will be £144.07 a month however remember you don't pay tax on that because it's taken before tax so in real terms your only paying £115.26 a month or £26.59 a week.  The NHS is putting another £525.31 a month into your pension so by opting out you're effectively taking a £6303 a year pay cut which your employer would be very happy about.  And have others have said the short term pain is well worth the long term gain as you will get that pension for the rest of your life and you get your money back in 3 years. 

And don't forget that pension gets uplifted by inflation every year.  I have been retired for 5 years and my pension has increased by 22.1% and we're probably heading for a 4% rise in April.  I never got pay rises when I was working that were anything like that.

Please try and find that £26 a week.  Stop buying coffee, make your own sandwiches, do anything you can but please do it