NHS buying additional years

jem16

butterfly72 wrote: »

Thanks for the replies. What exactly does this 40/60th and 30/80th mean and how is it worked out?

That's the type of final salary scheme.

40/60ths means divide your final salary by 60 and multiply by 40 - 40 years being the number of years you have worked and paid into the pension scheme. In other words two thirds.

The other scheme is 40/80ths so one half.

Also what impact does maternity leave have on a pension?

Depends on how long the maternity leave is. If you continue to be paid by your employer you can continue to contribute.

jebervic

The old scheme (for existing members) is 40/80ths scheme, the new scheme will be 30/60, so to get half pay on retirement you will only need to do 30 years to qualify for the maxiumum half pay pension.

Added years, you can buy years in excess of the years worked, however the drawback is that you have to pay the extra contributions until retirement (I did consider but didn't make financial sense to do so), you can buy extra pension under the new scheme, but rather than added years it will be buying in lots of £250 of extra income.

Anyone wanting to buy extra years need to log an enquiry before April 1st 2008, you then have until your next birthday to decide, not so good if your birthday is April 8th but plenty of time if your birthday is March 15th.

The earliest age at which you can draw a pension is also rising

firesidemaid

just out of interest, does anyone know what happens if you decide to purchase extra years, but then leave the nhs, say after only 5 or 10 years?

jem16

jebervic wrote: »

The old scheme (for existing members) is 40/80ths scheme, the new scheme will be 30/60, so to get half pay on retirement you will only need to do 30 years to qualify for the maxiumum half pay pension.

Worth noting that under the 40/80ths scheme you get a lump sum of 3/80 as well as your half pension.

Under the 30/60ths scheme your lump sum comes by taking part of the pension.

So if your salary was £30,000 on retiral;

40/80ths scheme - £15,000 pension plus a lump sum of £45,000

30/60ths scheme - £15,000 pension

CAE

firesidemaid wrote: »

just out of interest, does anyone know what happens if you decide to purchase extra years, but then leave the nhs, say after only 5 or 10 years?

The period of extra years purchased would be calculated as a proportion based on the number of years you had been paying the additional contributions against the original contract period.

starlet10

Has anyone received a reply/quote from the nhs pensions scheme about buying the additional years yet? We contacted the relevant department before the cut off date to log our interest but haven't heard anything from them since. My dh birthday is at the start of June, so we have less than a month to decide and apply for additional years.

GrannyKate

I actually contacted the pensions officer at my NHS Trust by email to register an interest in extra years - he wrote back giving a quote and I have until my birthday in September to decide.

Andy_L

firesidemaid wrote: »

i may have got it wrong, but i thought you couldn't buy 'additional' years that you haven't already worked.

so, if you have worked in the nhs for 6 years, that is all you are entitled to so far unless you want to buy avcs - although that scheme is changing too.

can anyone verify this please?

The limit on extra years is:
1. work out how many years service you would get if you stayed to normal retirement age (ie 60 for the current scheme).
2. If that is more than 40 you can't buy extra years
3. If it is less than the max you can buy is enough to get you 40 years

Andy_L

jebervic wrote: »

The old scheme (for existing members) is 40/80ths scheme, the new scheme will be 30/60, so to get half pay on retirement you will only need to do 30 years to qualify for the maxiumum half pay pension.

The new scheme is a 40/60ths scheme. The 40/80ths includes a 3x pension lump sum. The 2 options are broadly comparable as you can commute pension in the new scheme for a lump sum.
The new schem loses out buy having a retirement age of 65 vice 60 &, IIRC, worse ill health & survivors pension options.

starlet10

GrannyKate wrote: »

I actually contacted the pensions officer at my NHS Trust by email to register an interest in extra years - he wrote back giving a quote and I have until my birthday in September to decide.

My dh and several of his colleagues phoned their nhs trusts pension officer on the same day to express their interest, and so far none of them have received any communication from the pension dept. So an email would have been more effective then... :rolleyes::mad:

Oh well, I will get my dh to enquire again, and hope he receives a quote in time.