Civil_Service_Pensions

Making your choice

• When do I have to decide?
• What is the decision-making process?
• Do I have to have a pension?
• Am I committing myself forever?
• How do I find out more?

When do I have to decide?

You need to decide within three months of joining the Civil Service.

If you are eligible to choose between nuvos and partnership, we will usually automatically enter you into nuvos on your first day of service, and you will pay pension contributions of 3.5% of your pensionable pay. But if you are employed for less than 12 months, you may not be auto-enrolled so you must make a definite pension choice.

When you join, your employer will arrange to send you a Starter Pack with information on your choices in the booklet "PensionChoices: nuvos or partnership".  It includes your PensionChoices form.

If you want to join partnership, provided you fill in your PensionChoices form and send it to your employer within your first three months, your employer will then arrange to pay backdated contributions to your chosen pension provider. You will receive a refund of your nuvos contributions (less any contributions you have chosen to make to partnership and less your share of the cost of rejoining the State Second Pension (S2P)). The only exception to this is that if we are not able to put you back into S2P, we will give you a small preserved (frozen) pension in nuvos for the period before you made your choice rather than backdating partnership membership to day one. This is only likely to affect you if you are less than 6 months from State pension age when you opt to switch to partnership.

If you want to join nuvos, please send your PensionChoices form back. It does not just record your pension choice but also gives you the chance to ask for more information and to choose someone to receive any benefits when you die. If you are interested in things like aggregation and transfers from a Club scheme, you must act soon. If you do not send your PensionChoices form back within your first three months, your employer will leave you in the nuvos scheme.

What is the decision-making process?

1. Read the introductory literature in your Starter Pack and make other enquiries.

Do I have to have a pension?

If you want, you can choose not to have a Civil Service pension at all. In that case, you will just receive State benefits, including the State Second Pension (S2P). It will be up to you, at your cost, to make any other pension arrangements. If you want to opt out of (leave) our pension arrangements, you must say so on the PensionChoices form.

However, opting out completely will not save you any money. If you choose a partnership pension your employer will still pay an age-related contribution regardless of whether or not you pay anything. All you have to do is choose one of the pension providers and fill in their application form. Read the booklet “partnership pension account” for more information. Remember, that if you opt out you will be giving up a valuable range of benefits for you and your dependants.

Am I committing myself forever?

No. You can change schemes in the future – we allow you one switch in each direction (that is, one switch from nuvos to partnership and one switch from partnership to nuvos). We suggest that you should give your pension arrangements a ‘health check’ every year and satisfy yourself that you are on target for the sort of pension you want. As well as making sure your scheme is still right for you, you should also consider whether you should change your contribution level (in partnership) or top up your benefits (in nuvos).

For example:
Sarah joins the Civil Service. She expects to stay only a short while and she is attracted by the low cost of the partnership pension account. Sarah likes her job and after five years she thinks she will probably stay long term. Sarah moves into the nuvos scheme. As she approaches retirement, Sarah decides she would prefer the flexibility of partnership – she does not have any family, so she would prefer to use all her pension ‘pot’ to buy her a pension.

The conditions attached to switching between schemes are:

• you can only move on 1st April or 1st October in any year; and
• you must give your pensions administrator three months’ notice of your intention to switch.

How do I find out more?

This website and the booklet Pension Choices: nuvos or partnership in your Starter Pack are designed to give you enough information to make your choice.

If you are a member of one of the Civil Service unions, they may offer access to financial advice at special rates. Ask your local union representative. Or, you may want to consult an Independent Financial Adviser (IFA) but you will have to pay for any advice you get.

Please remember that while your employer and pensions administrator will do everything they can to help you, they are not allowed to give you financial advice. Also, remember that what is right for your line manager, or your colleagues, may not be the best choice for you.

It is your pension, and your choice.