What to expect......when you are leaving under an exit scheme and want to buy out the actuarial reduction in your pension benefits.

This guide is for:

• Members of classic, classic plus, premium, nuvos and/or alpha, who are over Minimum Pension Age (the earliest age you can claim your pension) but under Normal Pension Age (the earliest age you can take your pension without a reduction for early payment).

What you will need

to do

What your employer

will do

What Civil Service Pensions

will do

How long things will

take

Making your decision

Making additional payments to cover the cost of taking your benefits early

You’ll need to decide the terms you will take your pension benefits under.

You’ll receive a compensation quote from Civil Service Pensions confirming if you are eligible to receive your pension, and explaining the options available to you.

You will have a number of choices available:

1. Take your benefits reduced for early payment and receive your compensation payment.

2. Use your compensation payment to buy out the reduction that would be applied.

• You may have sufficient compensation to fully buy out the reduction. (The part of your compensation payment required to buy out the early payment reduction, will be retained by Civil Service Pensions.) You will receive unreduced pension benefits from your date of leaving and any remaining compensation payment.)

• If your compensation payment is insufficient to buy out the full reduction, you can still use all of your compensation to partially buy out the reduction.

You have the option to make additional payments* to the scheme (in multiples of £1,000 up to the full amount) to cover the full buy out amount.

In some circumstances your employer (at their discretion**) may cover the shortfall, up to the agreed limit your employer has confirmed. If you are unsure if your employer is offering this, please contact them to obtain confirmation.

Please note The information above is a guideline only. Time scales may vary depending on the complexity of individual cases.

Visit our website for more information: www.civilservicepensionscheme.org.uk

Have you found this information helpful? Please let us know. www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/guides

© Nov 2019Produced by MyCSP. WTE v14

IMPORTANT If you are a dual member (ie you have moved into alpha from one of the PCSPS schemes; classic, classic plus, premium or nuvos), you must buy out your Principal Civil Service Pension Scheme (PCSPS) benefits first.

If you are using your compensation to buy out the reduction in pension benefits, the relevant amount of compensation will be retained by the scheme.

* Your pension benefits cannot be paid until the cost of any buy out you have elected to pay has been received and funds have cleared. You cannot use your pension benefit lump sum to make additional payments to cover the shortfall. Any additional payments must come from your own resources.

** Employer top up is not available under all schemes: • If you are leaving under a Voluntary Exit (VE) scheme

top up is at your employer’s discretion. • If you are leaving under a Voluntary Redundancy (VR)

scheme employer top up is offered for those aged 55 and over.

• If you are leaving under a CR scheme, your employer cannot offer any top up payments.

By the deadline set by your employer

Before you leave employment

££ ££

A buy out calculator is available on the schemewebsite: www.civilservicepensionscheme.org.uk/members/member-calculatorsThis will enable you to calculate how much it will cost to fully buy out the reduction. If you have insufficient compensation to cover the full costs, the calculator will confirm how much pension benefits you will receive if you want to partially buy out the reduction.

If you have decided to make additional payments to cover the cost of taking your pension benefits early, you will need to indicate this on your option form. You should enclose a copy of the buy out calculator with your option form.

Once the scheme administrator (MyCSP) has received your completed form they will contact you to confirm how to make the payment to the scheme.

The scheme administrator will require the cleared funds before it is able to process your award and put your pension into payment.

Full Buy-Out Cost £15,500

Additional Top Up in multiples of £1,000 up to the full buy out cost

Compensation £7,000

Further information Further information is available to members who may be leaving the scheme as part of an exit programme. For guidance on how to complete your Exit Forms, visit the members forms page: www.civilservicepensionscheme.org.uk/members/member-forms To find out more about what happens during the Exit process, read our What to Expect guides: www.civilservicepensionscheme.org.uk/members/what-to-expect-library