How much is a civil service pension worth on top of a salary (roughly)?

[Mr.B-Campag]

I'm applying for a job and would like to be able to compare it to Civil Service pay and (particularly) pension in an upcoming interview. Does anyone have an idea of what a rough equivalent salary uplift the civil service pension gives? e.g. on a £60k civil service salary would I need £65k in the private sector to be equally well remunerated (again, roughly - I know it depends on a bunch of stuff)?

 

[Drago]

As you allude, lots of variables, but average salary in the public sector is now lower than for the private sector so thats a factor at the front-end. In real terms civil service salaries are 30+ percent lower than in 2010.

And, depending on where you go, could end up paying 15% of your gross salary into the pension.

So you've earned less and paid in more. Its an expensive free lunch, not the gold plated gift the Daily Moan would have you believe.

There may be other unexpected benefits, dependent upon where you end up. For example, I was assaulted quite badly while on duty and received GBH level injuries. In addition to my regular pension I receive an injury pension, or "award" which is tax free. Although my paper income is lower than when I was working my actual "take home" pay (I detest that term, but hey-ho) is higher because I dont pay tax on most of my income. That has a knock on benefit when applying for other stuff as my taxable income is low and injury/disability pension are excluded for most calculations. In the private sector that would have come down to an employers insurance, which could be very variable in outcome.

So lots of odd factors to consider, making the final decision a complex one.

Best of luck in (or if) your new career.

 

[fossyant]

Easy really. What percentage does the civil service put into the pension scheme - probably about 20% or more usually (although the schemes have been doing well and there may be some reduction).

You'd be lucky in a private company if they put in 6% on top of your salary, so this is the difference. You may also want to add in holiday difference, e.g. 30-35 days vs 20-25.

So, £50k salary - civil service put in £10k to pension(20%). Private company 6% or £3,000, so you'll need another 7k to put in AVC's. 10 days more holiday - say 250 working days a year (less bank holidays and rounding it down to 250). That's £200 a day, or 10 days £2,000. So looking at £9k more to come out with similar. Other things, what's the sickness policy - sometimes we overlook this, but SSP, or just 4 weeks full pay is very different from 6 months full pay - just in case - it does happen (happened to me).

 

[Raging_Pixie]

Just adding my tuppence. You don't say how old you are but the CS pension only really comes into its own when you've put the years in and even then with the relatively recent caps on the lump sum it's not as good as it was. I've got 38 years in the CS now and would probably do it again but I'd expect changes to the pension for new starters pretty soon because the Daily Fail has pretty much succeeded in getting people to believe it's better than it is.

The main reason I'd recommend the CS is you can change job without actually changing job. I've worked most of my life in tech but I've been a project manager, a dev, 2nd line support. I even spent 3 years out of IT working in vaccines without ever changing my employer.

 

[tom73]

@Drago has summed it , they are not the stuff of riches everyone is told. Another thing to factor in is the twist and turns. The government has a habit of moving the goal posts to win favours. Mrs 73 had already seen the terms changed 3 times. They also like to cream of the surplus.

 

[midlandsgrimpeur]

Easy really. What percentage does the civil service put into the pension scheme - probably about 20% or more usually (although the schemes have been doing well and there may be some reduction).

You'd be lucky in a private company if they put in 6% on top of your salary, so this is the difference. You may also want to add in holiday difference, e.g. 30-35 days vs 20-25.

So, £50k salary - civil service put in £10k to pension(20%). Private company 6% or £3,000, so you'll need another 7k to put in AVC's. 10 days more holiday - say 250 working days a year (less bank holidays and rounding it down to 250). That's £200 a day, or 10 days £2,000. So looking at £9k more to come out with similar. Other things, what's the sickness policy - sometimes we overlook this, but SSP, or just 4 weeks full pay is very different from 6 months full pay - just in case - it does happen (happened to me).

The legal minimum now is 80% of your weekly gross salary or £123.25, whichever of the two is lower, for up to 28 weeks. Obviously, an employer can have their own policy which offers more, but this is the minimum.

 

[nogoodnamesleft]

I have no idea of current pension deals but also many years ago I was employed sort of Civil Service and I was on a Civil Service pension scheme but not the scheme sdome other Civil Service employees get so might be there are different schemes.

And my scheme has changed since I was employed by the body (to my benefit) ie L eft the employment over 30 years ago but the scheme and thus my benefits changes maybe 20 years ago.

One aspect that was unusual compared to Private Pensions and (New) State Pension was that it had a retirement date set at age 55 and delaying taking the pension after that did not increase the benefit (eg New State pension has/had a scheme where delaying starting taking then increases the weekly amount you get when you do take it, similarly Private Pensions based on a fund seem to have a very dynamic retirement date and if you leave the fund after retirement it continues to grow and if you take out an annuity laster then you'll get more (as they expect to be paying out for fewer years).

Similarly, compared to Private Pensions my "Civil Service" scheme had no "fund" so no "lump sums" to take a significant single amount out.

 

[Drago]

@Drago has summed it , they are not the stuff of riches everyone is told. Another thing to factor in is the twist and turns. The government has a habit of moving the goal posts to win favours. Mrs 73 had already seen the terms changed 3 times. They also like to cream of the surplus.

Aye, they did it to me. The Fed took the government to court and it was ruled unlawful age discrimination and we got compo, with more to come for distress, hurt feelings, etc. The government's effort to sae a few quid cost them a fortune!

 

[steverob]

Agreeing with previous posters that the days of the gold-plated Civil Service pension are long dead, if they ever really existed.

I joined the CSP (central government IT job) in 2008 and already there was no final salary pension scheme available to new starters, only those who were on it when they started work were still eligible. I was put onto an average salary scheme, but that was essentially a final salary scheme to me, as I was already on a good-ish wage having worked in the industry elsewhere and it was very unlikely I was ever going to get promoted to a higher grade and a bigger salary!

But even then, that scheme that I was on also disappeared to newcomers a few years later and the replacement, while still slightly better than many private sector pensions, was not as good as the ones that came before it.

 

[tom73]

Aye, they did it to me. The Fed took the government to court and it was ruled unlawful age discrimination and we got compo, with more to come for distress, hurt feelings, etc. The government's effort to sae a few quid cost them a fortune!

They always mess it up and end up paying for it. The way they keep upping the age they are going to need a whole lot of new desk jobs in a few years. For all the old and worn-out Police, Fire , Prison officers and Nurses.

 

[T4tomo]

I'm applying for a job and would like to be able to compare it to Civil Service pay and (particularly) pension in an upcoming interview. Does anyone have an idea of what a rough equivalent salary uplift the civil service pension gives? e.g. on a £60k civil service salary would I need £65k in the private sector to be equally well remunerated (again, roughly - I know it depends on a bunch of stuff)?

Unless you can elucidate more on your current pension arrangements, its pretty difficult to advise.

is it contributory? if so what %

is it a final salary is so what do you get for each year service i.e. 1/60th 1/80th etc

if its a newer defined contribution scheme then you will be comparing apples with apples

 

[Mr.B-Campag]

Thanks everyone, I'm not in the UK but just trying to use the civil service as a benchmark - I want to understand what the private sector would have to pay me in the UK to be no worse off once the pension is taken into account. I realise that depends on my age, how many years I'd expect to be in the job etc. I just wanted a ballpark figure to help me start to negotiate (if I'm offered a job!) as I then need to take into account the local job market, currency etc. but I thought this would be a useful starting point as it's where I worked when I was in the UK and would be the obvious alternative employer to these people if I were still there. They also have an office in the UK. They don't say anything about remuneration (which pisses me off) so I don't know what they would contribute to a pension. But it sounds like a £10k differential is plausible (looks like Civil Service Alpha has a 29% contribution atm and I'd be amazed if this company offers more than 10%).

 

[steverob]

This is probably your best guide then (you might have already found this anyway): https://pensionplain.co.uk/civil-service-pension-scheme-explained/