Pension illustration

[Rommagic]

Thanks RobertT, yeah I realise it's all ''only a guide'' etc etc

Rommagic - You're a similar age to me, but seem to have a considerably higher forecast, can I ask approximately how many years you've been paying in and how much per week? (I realise as RobertT says there are other variables but it would still give a rough comparison)

19 years at roughly £28 a week.

Thanks for that, so same number of years as me but considerably higher contributions, makes the figures look about right.

Wacko any idea what your lump sum might be worth when you are 60?.

[wacko74]

All I know is with the figures I've quoted above where my "cash balance fund sum" which I'm assuming based on what RobertT says is what you mean by my lump sum which currently stands at £3,337. (Presumably that's at 65)

[maisymoo04]

only thing I understood was death in service £90 odd grand and a crappy pension of £3478 year.

[k979aaa]

I would not go so far as Illustration as Degradation of the pension scheme as for that is what it is!

[wacko74]

Can't understand why people say the RM pension scheme is a ''decent'' one based on the figures I'm seeing... I dread to think what a crappy pension scheme looks like!

I know someone who paid around £15 a week into a local authority pension scheme for only 10 years before leaving his job... his latest illustration shows he's going to get around £14k a year from it at 65!!

[milly]

Can't understand why people say the RM pension scheme is a ''decent'' one based on the figures I'm seeing... I dread to think what a crappy pension scheme looks like!

I know someone who paid around £15 a week into a local authority pension scheme for only 10 years before leaving his job... his latest illustration shows he's going to get around £14k a year from it at 65!!

Taxpayers have been very generous in their contributions to this persons particular pension scheme.

[RobertT]

Can't understand why people say the RM pension scheme is a ''decent'' one based on the figures I'm seeing... I dread to think what a crappy pension scheme looks like!

I know someone who paid around £15 a week into a local authority pension scheme for only 10 years before leaving his job... his latest illustration shows he's going to get around £14k a year from it at 65!!

It's all relative when you have a DB scheme because it's based on wages and length of service. If you earn more then your pension will pay out more.
Plus I would guess that all your friends pension is final salary, while ours isn't. And many schemes especially in the public sector, have very generous conditions dating back many years, which we don't.

You also have to consider what the same contributions would have got you from a personal pension, which until auto-enrolment was introduced, was the only option for many workers – and with no employer contributions either!

Personally, over the years I've paid in a gross of about £21,400 into my main RM pension(not including AVC's), which works out as around £17,100 net. I know because I'm sad and have made a note of these things!
I would only need to draw my NRA60 for about 2.5 years to get that total net contribution back, with everything afterwards being 'profit'.

So while your pension might not seem like much, it's actually very good value for money.

[k979aaa]

Can't understand why people say the RM pension scheme is a ''decent'' one based on the figures I'm seeing... I dread to think what a crappy pension scheme looks like!

I know someone who paid around £15 a week into a local authority pension scheme for only 10 years before leaving his job... his latest illustration shows he's going to get around £14k a year from it at 65!!

It's all relative when you have a DB scheme because it's based on wages and length of service. If you earn more then your pension will pay out more.
Plus I would guess that all your friends pension is final salary, while ours isn't. And many schemes especially in the public sector, have very generous conditions dating back many years, which we don't.

You also have to consider what the same contributions would have got you from a personal pension, which until auto-enrolment was introduced, was the only option for many workers – and with no employer contributions either!

Personally, over the years I've paid in a gross of about £21,400 into my main RM pension(not including AVC's), which works out as around £17,100 net. I know because I'm sad and have made a note of these things!
I would only need to draw my NRA60 for about 2.5 years to get that total net contribution back, with everything afterwards being 'profit'.

So while your pension might not seem like much, it's actually very good value for money.

And why did we not retain a final salary scheme was it due to Royal Mail and it's board at the time did not pay into the pension scheme yet payed millions into the government of the time. And as such we who are in this so called pension scheme are tared with the brush of gold plated pensions where as the reality is anything but!

[Steve_claret]

I know someone who paid around £15 a week into a local authority pension scheme for only 10 years before leaving his job... his latest illustration shows he's going to get around £14k a year from it at 65!!

Only possible if he had a very well paid job and all his pension is final salary or if he has transfered a previous pension into his LA pension.

Our final salary scheme was always considered one of the best but unfortunately as with most other final salary schemes it had to close.

[Rommagic]

Useless pension phone call centre.i asked them about a lump sum,they just said call when your 55 or 60.

[RobertT]

The annual illustration is just what you've accrued to 31st March in any given year.

What you may have in 20 years time is impossible to answer because:

1. The old defined benefit scheme closed to future accrual on 31st March 2018, what you'd built up on that date now just goes up with inflation each year.
2. The Cash Balance (DBCBS) is designed to pay out a lump sum along with your already accrued benefits, and is only an interim scheme until the proposed CDC pension is implemented. That is targeted to increase each year too, but only the money going in is guaranteed.
3. The CDC scheme will be completely separate & aims provide a pension of 1/80th of pensionable pay but is not guaranteed, and a lump sum(via the defined benefit lump sum scheme) of 3/80ths of pensionable pay for each year you're a member.
4. We don't yet know when CDC will begin.

You may be able to guestimate what you'll have in the future, but without knowing how much you're wages are or the rates of inflation in the years to come, or even if the CDC scheme materialises or not, your maths won't necessarily be very accurate.
In practice the older you are, the more accurate your sums are likely to be.