Are you on track to meet your retirement goals? Do you know what your NHS pension will be worth when you come to take it? The Pension Assessment Report can answer these questions, giving you the clarity you need to make the right pension choices for you and your family.
What does the report show?
There are two versions of the Pension Assessment Report you can choose from. A basic version at no cost, and a full version that costs £960+VAT (£1,152 based on today's VAT rate of 20%).
The basic report can give you a projection of your NHS pension benefits, and show how things like future salary changes or deferring and rejoining the scheme might affect your finances.
Even if you’ve opted out of the NHS Pension Scheme, the report can project your current benefits to retirement. It can also show you the difference if you were to opt back in.
Choose the full report and you can also find out:
- Your position in relation to the Annual Allowance
- How any personal pensions you hold could affect your post-work funds and lifestyle
- How inflation may impact your pension funds
- If and how you might be affected by the McCloud judgement (age discrimination ruling)
- What you could be entitled to if you need to retire due to ill health
Which report is right for you?
The table below shows exactly what you can expect from the free and full versions of the NHS pension assessment tool. Speak to your Specialist Financial Adviser from Wesleyan Financial Services if you’re not sure which is right for you.
| Basic report | Full report | |
|---|---|---|
Officer, practitioner or combination membership | ||
Maximum tax-free lump sum | ||
| Officer and practitioner added years | ||
Future salary changes | ||
Historical defer and re-joined the scheme | ||
Divorce | ||
| Historical defer but planning to re-join in the future | ||
| Future plans to defer and then re-join | ||
| Annual allowance (current membership) | ||
| Annual allowance (legacy membership) | ||
| Annual allowance (reformed membership) | ||
| McCloud remedy period projections for legacy and reformed schemes* | ||
| Annual allowance and income record | ||
| Cost of Scheme Pays if used in current year | ||
| Flexible retirement options (phased retirement or 'retire and return')** | ||
| Personal pensions |
* Basic report shows projections for legacy schemes only.
** When taking 100% of benefits from the 1995 or 2008 section, and continuing to contribute to the 2015 section.
Note that only calculations based on 1995 and 2015 scheme membership are currently available.
Helping you make sense of the numbers…
Once we’ve created your report, your Specialist Financial Adviser from Wesleyan Financial Services will help you make sense of the figures.
They’ll identify whether or not your current pension pot(s) will be sufficient to help you meet your retirement goals - and advise on any steps or strategies that could help strengthen your pension projection.
Rest assured that our advisers are specialists in the medical and dental fields, with expert knowledge of the NHS Pension Scheme.
Frequently asked questions
Early retirement is a life goal for many of the medics and dentists that we support. This can only be achieved if you have sufficient assets, cash, investments and pensions to lead the lifestyle that you’re hoping for in retirement.
Working with the findings of your report, your adviser can help you plan ahead and make sure that early retirement is a viable option for you.
We can also use cashflow modelling to visualise your retirement, based on projected income and expenditure.
Before making a decision, it’s crucial to look closely at both options and weigh up all the possible tax and benefit implications.
The report can project your pension income for both scenarios, so you can see what might happen if you opt to stay in, as well as if you choose to opt out.
No matter when you wish to retire, it’s important to keep an eye on how your benefits are building and to understand all your options. This will be particularly important if you want to retire early.
Your early thirties are a great time to think ahead to the level of income that you and your family might need in retirement, and to explore the options available to build your retirement pot.