Civil Service Additional Voluntary Contribution Scheme (CSAVCS)
The CSAVCS provides retirement benefits on a money purchase basis in
addition to those that you will receive from your main Civil Service
scheme. (If you have a partnership pension account you
cannot contribute to the CSAVCS.) The CSAVCS can also provide additional
life cover. You can choose to invest with one or more of our providers:
Equitable Life, Scottish Widows or Standard Life. Equitable Life re,mains
as a CSAVCS provider but is not open to new members except for life
assurance cover. You use your fund to buy an annuity – a pension for life.
You can make your choice of which annuity you want to buy at any time
between payment of your main scheme benefits and the day before your 75th
birthday.
The CSAVCS gives you flexibility in both the way you pay your contributions
and the way you take your benefits. You can pay by a lump sum and/or by
regular payments. You can make lump sum payments from your salary
throughout the year. Alternatively, you can make regular payments by
percentage deductions from your salary each month. You can select the level
you wish to invest and you can, within certain limits, increase or decrease
your contributions, and start or stop them as you wish (providing you give
appropriate notice).
