Pension Illustration Today

Hawkey99 · Post by **Hawkey99** » 02 Oct 2017, 16:51

Just got my quote today.

I have noticed my Death in Service has gone down since last year and my Final salary Pension has also gone down (the bit in the purple blocks) has gone down.

Is this possible. I thought these bits were guaranteed ?

Thanks

NWpostie · Post by **NWpostie** » 02 Oct 2017, 18:03

Same here, I have noticed a loss of £3,500 a year and final salary is reduced.

That can't be right, I have accrued 21 years final salary and the rest DB, my last illustration was very generous and I could conceivably retire just on NRA60 and defer NRA65 til later, under the new system the gain of waiting to 65 is very little.

Glad I voted for a strike, most of my colleagues of a similar age and service are of the same mind.

heapsy · Post by **heapsy** » 02 Oct 2017, 20:47

[quote="NWpostie"]Same here, I have noticed a loss of £3,500 a year and final salary is reduced.

That can't be right, I have accrued 21 years final salary and the rest DB, my last illustration was very generous and I could conceivably retire just on NRA60 and defer NRA65 til later, under the new system the gain of waiting to 65 is very little.

Glad I voted for a strike, most of my colleagues of a similar age and service are of the same mind.

Mine is reduced too. For some reason they also don't include the lump sum option. I rang pensions today but you have to ring another number, they wont deal with you. Sounds a bit fishy to me.

Post by **RobertT** » 03 Oct 2017, 04:48

Without seeing your annual statements it’s hard to say, but there are probably 3 reasons why your figures are lower than last year:

1. Your pensionable pay went down sometime between 1st April 2016 and 31st March 2017.
2. You’re reading it incorrectly.
3. The trustees have made a mistake.

Previous statements have shown what you might get at 60 and 65. But as we don't yet know what's going to happen after 1st April 2018, this years is just based on what you have actually accrued up to 31st March 2017.

For what it’s worth, mine has increased by roughly what I expected it to from last year.

TheStrangler · Post by **TheStrangler** » 03 Oct 2017, 15:24

Just received the benefit illustration.
How do I go about getting a very rough idea of what I'd get if I retired at 55 (maximum pension , no lump sum)?
Do I add the two figures in black together (total pension and supplement) then do some sort of reduction?

heapsy · Post by **heapsy** » 03 Oct 2017, 15:30

TheStrangler wrote:Just received the benefit illustration.
How do I go about getting a very rough idea of what I'd get if I retired at 55 (maximum pension , no lump sum)?
Do I add the two figures in black together (total pension and supplement) then do some sort of reduction?

Multipy the pension in the NRA60 by 20. Deduct 25% of the total. For the NRA65, assuming you wanted to take it at the same time, multiply by 20, then deduct 50%. Add the two together. Reductions apply to lump sums too.

mark.cup · Post by **mark.cup** » 03 Oct 2017, 15:47

I maybe wrong but I've been doing some number crunching and I would say all you need to do is take the final salary (purple box) and take off 25% 5% for each year that's your age 60 benefits. Then add the orange and green figures together and take off 50% as that's your age 65 benefits 10 years early add that to the previous figure.... Job done?

Post by **RobertT** » 03 Oct 2017, 16:54

It’s not an simple calculation. But it’s not as easy as mark.cup’s reply or nowhere near as bizarre as heapsy’s!

The purple box refers to your final salary pension, so that relates to your service up to 31st March 2008.
The yellow box relates to the CARE/CSDB pension you accrued during the year 1st April 2016 to 31st March 2017.
The green box relates to the CARE/CSDB pension you accrued from 1st April 2008 to 31st March 2016.
As the NRA60 pension relates to service up to 2010, you need to work out roughly how much pension you accrued during those two years(2008-2010).

To work out roughly what your NRA60 is worth:

Add together the yellow box amount and the green box amount - that will give you your total pension from 2008 to 2017. Then divide by 9 to give an average yearly pension during those 9 years.
Two of those years relate to your NRA60 pension (up to 2010)along with the final salary figure(purple box), so add those 2 years together along with the final salary figure to give you a rough NRA60 amount. Then take off 5% for every year you want to take early.

To work out roughly what your NRA65 is worth:

Simply use the remaining 7 years from the calculation above, and again take off 5% for every year you want to take it early.

How the supplement is treated when taking your pension early is something that confuses me to be honest, other people’s posts on these forums would suggest it’s not as easy as just taking off 5% per year. So I don’t think I can give you a correct way of working out I’m afraid.

mark.cup · Post by **mark.cup** » 03 Oct 2017, 17:13

Oh well it worked in my head

and looking at the above I think even though I try to take an interest in pensions I may give up

TheStrangler · Post by **TheStrangler** » 03 Oct 2017, 18:13

Thanks to all for your help.

heapsy · Post by **heapsy** » 03 Oct 2017, 19:40

Oops

Cheers Robert. Got a slightly better idea of whats what, now. RM certainly haven't made it easy by removing the lump sum figure from the statement.

Hawkey99 · Post by **Hawkey99** » 03 Oct 2017, 21:13

So if my wages were broadly the same or slightly more this year than last my Final Salary pension at march 2016 (far left top purple box) should be higher this year than last year.

Is that correct

Many Thanks

Post by **fly-catchers** » 03 Oct 2017, 21:14

RobertT wrote: How the supplement is treated when taking your pension early is something that confuses me to be honest, other people’s posts on these forums would suggest it’s not as easy as just taking off 5% per year. So I don’t think I can give you a correct way of working out I’m afraid.

Their online calculator while it was still there gave a much lower figure for the supplement if you took it early. Also if you took for example the NRA65 pension and supplement 5 years early and had the amounts reduced by 25% you would actually get much more cash for the supplement which I am sure they are aware of and would want to avoid! My single £440 payment at 65 would change to £330 for 6 years giving me a total of £1980. So I hope it does work out at 5% per year. I get my NRA60 next year and I did query this with the PSC who replied "Thank you for your email. The annual pension supplement is also reduced by approximately 5% for each year that it is claimed early in the same manner as the pension." When I later queried the conflicting calculator figures they replied "It is difficult to answer your question, as we cannot be sure which figures you have entered into the calculator and the calculator is only supposed to give you a rough a guide to what your benefits could be."

So fingers crossed 5% it is! Still not got my 2017 benefit illustration. Perhaps as I am so close to 60 they don't any need to rush the general benefits illustation to me!

mark.cup · Post by **mark.cup** » 04 Oct 2017, 16:22

Thanks Robert I've just done your calculation and it's added £155 a year to my slightly incorrect but very simple version

On the figures I've come back with there is no way I would take my benefits at 55 I would be skint for life

ROSSCO · Post by **ROSSCO** » 04 Oct 2017, 17:43

I've received my pension illustration today.
Am I right in thinking if you add total pension earned to 21.3.17 (£5106)
to total pension supplement earned to 31.3.17 (£991) then divide by 52
which gives me my pension built up so far as £117.25 per week with no lump sum taken?
Hopefully one of the clever people on here can point me where i'm going wrong?!