Pension help

[Dorset Plodder]

I would ring Capita if I was in your position. It took them 2 months to send me my RMSPS estimates after the PSC had sent the NRA60 order to them and I only received it then as I had to chase them. Also get used to the 2 pension administrators blaming each other for any delays. The whole process now is an absolute farce. Good luck.

Cheers Steve Thanks for the advice. It's really just an exercise in paperwork for me. I'll be working on (probably until I drop dead on my frame) So there's no urgency in trying to tie up Lump Sum Payments to tie in with my Birthday/Retirement, which I know is the target for a lot of Posties.

I don't claim to be a financial genius, I know there's a lot of clued up guys on here that dabble in shares & investments etc .... I just work on the basis of "Don't rely on anyone to look after you in your old age.... apart from yourself". I'm lucky enough to have an Army Pension, and I put money into a Private Pension. Hopefully with a few bob from Royal Mail & the OAP I'll have enough to get a sticky bun & a cup of tea. I live a fairly Frugal (Boring) lifestyle so when people start going on about having £500 a week to spend in Retirement I wonder what I'd find to spend it on.

[Steve_claret]

I take your point DP but it really shouldn't be this way trying to claim something which is rightfully yours. It should be paid on or about your birthday/retirement as possible. People are relying on this money to either pay off considerable debt or to stop working. This outsourcing to Capita is possibly the worst thing that has happened to RM pensions. Whoever in the Cabinet Office decided that this was a good thing needs stringing up by their wotsits.

[Dorset Plodder]

Like many things in RM it just seems to have slipped under the radar. Anything to do with money just seems to be such a struggle when dealing with RM, I agree it shouldn't need you to chase it, the same with owed overtime .... it becomes such a pain.

I don't know if it's a deliberate tactic to frustrate posties from claiming anything, or if it's just down to incompetence .... I suspect the latter.

[stephen500]

Did you claim the free £750 available to those that leave the business whilst in the cash balance transitional scheme?

[stephen500]

I would ring Capita if I was in your position. It took them 2 months to send me my RMSPS estimates after the PSC had sent the NRA60 order to them and I only received it then as I had to chase them. Also get used to the 2 pension administrators blaming each other for any delays. The whole process now is an absolute farce. Good luck.

I just hope the two are not playing each other. The RMPP because they are miffed at losing work.

[Steve_claret]

In my experience that is exactly what they are doing. If you ring Capita then they usually say that they are just waiting for something from the RMPP and when you ring the PSC they say the opposite. I am now 4 weeks from my 60th and am still awaiting the Lifetime Allowance form which I should have received 6 weeks ago. Apparently I have now missed the next print run so will be another 2 weeks so the PSC informed me today.

[Dorset Plodder]

In my case Capita seem to be pulling their finger out .... I recieved their RMSPS -Retirement Benefits letter today. And I'm glad to see they're offering me more than £40 a year.

I note their letter is headed "Cabinet Office", just to confuse matters more. The Colourful Timeline Diagram is useful, I had to smile when I read the bottom section .... "Congratulations on your retirement".... they must be confusing me with a Member of Parliment! I take it they do realise some of us are going to be working on?

So all there is to do now is decide which option to take. Intially the Lump sum option is appealing to me: A) I'm thinking Tax Free Lump Sum ... into a Tax Free Savings Option ... use it for whatever in the near future .....versus
B)Take a slightly larger Monthly Pension (spookily just over £40 ) ... and get Taxed on it.

Doing some Fag Packet calculations the Lump Sum is worth about 20 years worth of the reduced ammount of monthly payments. I have also heard it suggested that if you take the Lump Sum and drop dead the folllowing week at least you've had your money. Any thoughts?

[NorthernBoy]

In my case Capita seem to be pulling their finger out .... I recieved their RMSPS -Retirement Benefits letter today. And I'm glad to see they're offering me more than £40 a year.

I note their letter is headed "Cabinet Office", just to confuse matters more. The Colourful Timeline Diagram is useful, I had to smile when I read the bottom section .... "Congratulations on your retirement".... they must be confusing me with a Member of Parliment! I take it they do realise some of us are going to be working on?

So all there is to do now is decide which option to take. Intially the Lump sum option is appealing to me: A) I'm thinking Tax Free Lump Sum ... into a Tax Free Savings Option ... use it for whatever in the near future .....versus
B)Take a slightly larger Monthly Pension (spookily just over £40 ) ... and get Taxed on it.

Doing some Fag Packet calculations the Lump Sum is worth about 20 years worth of the reduced ammount of monthly payments. I have also heard it suggested that if you take the Lump Sum and drop dead the folllowing week at least you've had your money. Any thoughts?

Hi, can you tell us what conversion rate they are offering you if you take the lump sum and reduced pension. Eg for every £1 pension given up gives £x in a lump sum

Thanks

[RobertT]

So all there is to do now is decide which option to take. Intially the Lump sum option is appealing to me: A) I'm thinking Tax Free Lump Sum ... into a Tax Free Savings Option ... use it for whatever in the near future .....versus
B)Take a slightly larger Monthly Pension (spookily just over £40 ) ... and get Taxed on it.

Doing some Fag Packet calculations the Lump Sum is worth about 20 years worth of the reduced ammount of monthly payments. I have also heard it suggested that if you take the Lump Sum and drop dead the folllowing week at least you've had your money. Any thoughts?

There are pros and cons to both, but ultimately it'll be a personal choice based on your own circumstances, etc.

The pension is probably the boring option, and you will pay tax on it if you're still working and most probably beyond too, depending on what other income you have. But it will be index linked and go up with inflation each year, giving you a steady income for the rest of your life. So don't underestimate the power of compounding over time.

Lump sums tend to get spent relatively quickly. Once you've bought a new car, had a nice holiday, helped the kids with a house deposit, spoilt the grand kids, or whatever else you spend it on, that's it – it's gone!

My suggestion would be to work out what you're income is going to be when you do give up work. If that's enough to live on fairly comfortably then perhaps a bigger lump sum will give a nice cash boost, if not then think more along the lines of a bigger pension.

Also consider what you're going to do in your dotage. You'll have a serious amount of extra time on your hands and whatever you do with it, will probably end up costing money in one way or another.
Household bills could increase too if you're spending more time at home.
So a frugal life in work, when you're grafting 8 hours a day with occasional holidays, isn't necessarily the same in retirement.

You mentioned a personal pension up thread. What are you going to do with that?
Annuity = steady income for the rest of your life?
Drawdown = use to enable earlier retirement?
That needs to be factored in aswell.

[RobertT]

Hi, can you tell us what conversion rate they are offering you if you take the lump sum and reduced pension. Eg for every £1 pension given up gives £x in a lump sum

Thanks

In practice I think it varies a bit, but generally it's around the 1:20 mark.
I'm sure DP or someone else with experience will be able to answer specifically.

[Dorset Plodder]

]
Hi, can you tell us what conversion rate they are offering you if you take the lump sum and reduced pension. Eg for every £1 pension given up gives £x in a lump sum

Thanks

Doesn't appear to be any figures to ilustrate this NB. On the Option B section it merely says, "The benefit under this option is estimated to represent 3.88% of the Lifetime Allowance" but the other option says basically the same, I'm sorry no to be more helpful. I think you'll have to be guided by Robert T.

[Dorset Plodder]

There are pros and cons to both, but ultimately it'll be a personal choice based on your own circumstances, etc.

The pension is probably the boring option, and you will pay tax on it if you're still working and most probably beyond too, depending on what other income you have. But it will be index linked and go up with inflation each year, giving you a steady income for the rest of your life. So don't underestimate the power of compounding over time.

Lump sums tend to get spent relatively quickly. Once you've bought a new car, had a nice holiday, helped the kids with a house deposit, spoilt the grand kids, or whatever else you spend it on, that's it – it's gone!


You mentioned a personal pension up thread. What are you going to do with that?
Annuity = steady income for the rest of your life?
Drawdown = use to enable earlier retirement?
That needs to be factored in aswell.

Very Good advice, as always Robert T And much food for thought. TBH I hadn't taken the index linking of the pension into consideration

The Lump Sum wouldn't be a problem (I don't mean the spending of it) .... I've always been a very disciplined saver... If I've earmarked money for saving it gets put away (although maybe not in the Best places for returns). I suppose it was just my generation that developed that savings habit.

Glad you mentioned the Personal Pension ... I'm going to have to "Refresh" my memory on the details (again another product of my Savings Habit, thought I'd better put something away while I could). It will probaby get used for an annuity.
You did jog my memory on something else as well. I opted out of SERPs back in April 1996 so there's a small pension to chase there. I presume as there's been no "investment" since they stopped the Opt Out it's just been gathering interest?

All in all I think it's been a good excercise for me to review these things at this stage, and thanks for the advice. I'm not as disorganised as I sound. I did have a very good IFA, one that I'd built up a good relationship with over 20 odd years. I've since moved and not got around to finding another one.

[dwhite60]

I am due to start drawing my pension on my 60th birthday later this month. I have not received any pension figures or options from RMSPS, despite weekly requests via their helpline since June. I have been so stressed about the situation, I keep being told that my case has been 'escalated' and that someone would call me back. This has not happened. I have raised a complaint to the Pensions Ombudsman and await a response. I read with interest previous posts relating to similar issues, and yesterday I emailed John Hearn at National Federation of Occupational Pensions and Jon Lewis CEO at Capita. John Hearn responded within 3 hours and copied me in to an email chasing various people within Capita and the Cabinet Office. Let's hope I get some action at last, hopefully this week.

[stephen500]

I would ring Capita if I was in your position. It took them 2 months to send me my RMSPS estimates after the PSC had sent the NRA60 order to them and I only received it then as I had to chase them. Also get used to the 2 pension administrators blaming each other for any delays. The whole process now is an absolute farce. Good luck.

It seems to be, from my experience so far, that to allow 17 weeks is the min. I have built in a couple of months buffer on top of that.

[stephen500]

I am due to start drawing my pension on my 60th birthday later this month. I have not received any pension figures or options from RMSPS, despite weekly requests via their helpline since June. I have been so stressed about the situation, I keep being told that my case has been 'escalated' and that someone would call me back. This has not happened. I have raised a complaint to the Pensions Ombudsman and await a response. I read with interest previous posts relating to similar issues, and yesterday I emailed John Hearn at National Federation of Occupational Pensions and Jon Lewis CEO at Capita. John Hearn responded within 3 hours and copied me in to an email chasing various people within Capita and the Cabinet Office. Let's hope I get some action at last, hopefully this week.

Have you left the business. if not you must in the first instance go through RMPP.
If you have, I think you have to contact both.
I can't understand your delay.
I am 60 in Feb 2021. I applied on June 1st to take both pensions at 59 and 10 months in Nov 2020.So FAR paperwork has been smooth, every thing to time and I have been told by RMPP I will be paid in Nov and having spoke to RMSPS that they have been notified by RMPP to pay the RMSPS.
So all is ok so far.
I cannot understand why you have had no paperwork.
I think you should ring RMPP and RMSPS daily if required. Get on their back.