A clueless mess

FunLovinCriminal

Morning all

Am 51, work in the fruit and veg aisle for Tesco. My back is not taking the strain, and with xmas approaching its only gonna get worse.

I am seriously considering my future.

I pay 4% in the pension, matched by tesco. Been paying in 18yrs. Prior to that i had a pension with home office - for 10yrs.

I am struggling to make ends meet with the cost of living, even with staff discount in store with two kids and my wife working in a school.

I am realising this is becoming a rant rather than a post.

I want to come up with a plan, a plan to have an early retirement if my back gives in. I dont fancy "light duties" which will involve picking dotcom shopping or checkouts - both involve heavy lifting too.

What should i do to plan for the future, short term and long term plan.

I asked for a pension statement in May from Capita (home office) but not heard anything back

Dazed_and_C0nfused

Is your Tesco pension defined benefit (like deferred salary) or defined contribution (a pot of money)?

El_Torro

If you've been paying 8% into your pension for the last 18 years (4% from you and 4% from your employer) then your Tesco pension is unlikely to be huge. It would help if you tell us how big your pot is. Remember that you won't be able to access your pension until you are at least 57 years old. Your Home Office pension will play a factor too of course. If you take that early then chances are the monthly payments will be lower.

Have you checked the status of your state pension? You can check that online on gov.uk

I'm not sure what suggestions we can give you, other than put as much as you can in your pension. If you do leave / lose your job due to your back then there are probably some benefits you can claim, at least until you can access your pensions.

As well as telling us what is in your Tesco pension it would be good to know how much money you need yearly / monthly. Only share what you are comfortable sharing of course, though the more information we have the more accurate our suggestions will be.

hugheskevi

If your pension from the Home Office was the Civil Service Classic scheme, you are eligible for ill health retirement even if you are no longer an active member. If you qualified, that would mean an enhanced pension paid without reduction.

barnstar2077

I would have a chat with your partner, then sit down together and go through your budget line by line. With both of you on board I think you will be surprised how much money has been falling through the cracks.

Do you own your own home, if so, how long do you have left on the mortgage please?

kimwp

Have you asked for an occupational health assessment?

Veloflyer

Were it me….. do what previous posters mention plus get another more sedentary job. If you are struggling a little now financially, then you will surely struggle until any sort of pension other than SP kicks in. Even then, it may still be a struggle. Look at what you are spending carefully.

I think you are far too young to retire at 51. The world is still your oyster. Don't give up on it just yet.

FunLovinCriminal

Since 2015 Tesco has been a defined contribution pension.

As at yesterfays date i have £30000 in the pension pot

poseidon1

With 18 years of Tesco service, you seem to be unaware that you have two pension schemes with Tesco.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-32413104

Assuming you started service in 2008, your first 7 years service until 2015 will have been as a member of their final salary scheme which terminated in 2015 per the BBC article above.

If you scroll down to page 16 of their information leaflet below you see information on how you can access details of that scheme on line -

https://www.pensionwebsite.co.uk/mint-project/uploads/231659026.pdf

If want information on how much you could get from that scheme on a early retirement basis, you would need to contact the pension team at Tesco head office to get an early retirement forecast.

The current active Tesco scheme is a money purchase DC scheme managed by L & G. Similarly you can obtain online pension pot values via the following portal -

https://www.pensionwebsite.co.uk/get-a-valuation

Bear in mind, with the 2nd Tesco pension this only builds a pot of cash which you then have to decide how to turn it into retirement income. As a money purchase arrangement generally the more you put in the more you can potentially accumulate so bear in mind Tesco's cap for that scheme is 7.5% of salary leaving you a 3.5% headroom to improve the overall contributions to a total of 15% of salary going forward.

Finally, if you have not previously done so, and think you maybe able to manage another 3 years service with Tesco, their SAYE share purchase scheme is well worth consideration to build a capital pot separate and distinct from your pension arrangements.

Tesco have one of the better SAYE schemes out there which has proved to provide excellent returns for staff who have used it.

Exodi

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82200564#Comment_82200564

There is more to the equation (such as your expected outgoings in retirement, do you own your own house, will your wife continue working, etc). Someone expecting to rent in retirement will need a much bigger pot than someone who is mortgage free.

That said, you typically can't access your DC pension likely until you are 57 (typically up to 10 years before state pension age, but I don't think this is an 'official rule').

Even if you could, £30k is sadly not much for a pension pot, particularly in the conversation of retiring early. You might be able to draw a sustainable income of £75p/m with that… Many on this forum wouldn't even considering retiring early on £300k.

By contrast your public DB pension is likely to be much more generous, you definitely need to get the details of that (appreciate Capita is giving you a headache, like it is to everyone else - do you have any previous statements?).

My gut feeling is you may need to make a plan around retiring at SPA, perhaps by looking at less manual roles.

poseidon1

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82200564#Comment_82200564

That is only part of your Tesco pension package, what about your deferred final salary pension with them?