"BigGirlsBlouse" wrote in message
...

"rick stevens" wrote in message
...
Hi

Not sure if this is the right newgroup to ask ths, but here goes.

As part of a TUPE process, i have been given a one off chance to join my
new employers final salary pension scheme.

The information I have says your pension is based on your pensionable
service, and final pensionable pay in last 12 months.

The formula to calculate the pension is 1/60 x fpp x ps.

What exactly is pensionable service? Is it the number of years I have
been in the scheme?

Also, I am now 45, and have no other pension provision, is this worth
doing?

thanks for any advice

Rick

IMHO you grab it quick before the employer takes it away.
the best example to understand what a 60ths scheme is is to imagine a
standard 40 years pensionable service, therefore 40/60 = 2/3 so you get
2/3rds of your final salary as a pension.
Up to 2008 the local government pension scheme used to be an 80th
scheme.... so choosing the above example that is 40/80 = 1/2 so you get
half of your final salary as a pension. Incidentally this scheme is now a
60ths scheme with improved pension!
Pensionable service is as you say is number of years in the scheme (this
assumes that you are working a full working week and this is not reduced
pro-rata for part time working)
In my case I was an apprentice for 5 years and so was not a member of the
scheme until I became a fully fledged employee.
The most difficult definition to grasp is pensionable pay...which is not
the same as gross pay...or net pay. In the british steel pension scheme
(not sure if its the same for all schemes) it is gross pay minus single
persons state pension, irrespective of whether you have a full state
contribution in terms of 44 years for a male (or 30 years after 2010) .
At 45 you may not get a lot of service in, however the scheme may allow
additional voluntary contributions of years of service whereby you pay
extra to buy these additional years. Its worth asking... but only if you
can afford the cost. The scheme will give you the costs if you ask for any
numbers of additional years.

Summarising, these schemes are a dying breed and are really unsustainable
especially in businesses which have high salaries (such as steelworkers,
rather than shopworkers), so you go for it....unless you have a chronic
illness which is going to have you deceased early...in which case you may
not even need a pension.
But... if your a healthy 45, with no defects, and healthy then do take
them up. If its a large company the scheme might last, but if its a small
company it will be closed sooner rather than later, but even if it is you
become a deferred pensioner with protected rights.

Basically I agree with this. I would say, however, that you ought to ask the
scheme for its own definitions of the terms that you are questioning. For
example, in the old days (rules have changed since) the maximum the Revenue
allowed you to have as a pension was based on your years of service, which
may have been more than the length of time you were a member of the pension
scheme (given that some pension schemes required you to be an employee for,
say, 2 years before you could join). So 'years of service' depends on the
definition that the pesnion scheme uses.

Whatever the niceties of these definitions are, it's almost certain that
you'd be better off in than out.

Rob Graham