Pension Papers Delay?

[robking]

I will be 65 in November and in May I received a letter stating that my pension forms would be sent out 4 months before my NRA65 pension is due.

It's now three weeks past the 4 month point and I have heard nothing, so I wonder if anyone else in the same position is experiencing this delay.

I've tried phoning them but there is a 20minuite queue for calls to be answered.

[RobertT]

According to the timeline here, you should get your first correspondence 15 weeks before your due date.

As of today(28/7/25) it's 14 weeks until the first working day of November and 18 weeks until 1st December. So without knowing when your birthday actually is, there's still a chance they're within time.

You probably also need to factor in that neither the PSC or Capita are particularly efficient and RM doesn't value letters as it used to.

My only other suggestion is that you put up with 20 minutes of on hold muzak, and ask.

[Wullie10]

Interesting link but I thought the LTA had been abolished?

[RobertT]

It is an old link, although I see no reason why the basic timeline should be drastically different.

The Lifetime Allowance(LTA) has been replaced by the Lump Sum Allowance(LSA) and the Lump Sum and Death Benefit Allowance(LSDBA).
https://www.moneyhelper.org.uk/en/pensi ... r-pensions

[robking]

According to the timeline here, you should get your first correspondence 15 weeks before your due date.

As of today(28/7/25) it's 14 weeks until the first working day of November and 18 weeks until 1st December. So without knowing when your birthday actually is, there's still a chance they're within time.

You probably also need to factor in that neither the PSC or Capita are particularly efficient and RM doesn't value letters as it used to.

My only other suggestion is that you put up with 20 minutes of on hold muzak, and ask.

Thanks, I thought all the forms would be sent out at the same time
I should have had the first form already but given that they send them by post and we all know what a state that is in, I'll give them another week before tackling the phone lines.

[Kingy7185]

Received Section C forms retirement `December .

With option 2 the full lump some option with the reduced pension.

Mentions deferred AVC , does anybody know when and how do you claim the AVC , trying to understand when the AVC is accessible?

Any help would very much appreciated

[RobertT]

AVC's are designed to fund some or potentially all of the tax free lump sum, so you don't have to give up any pension. They're best used with Age60 as you will have the DBCBS to fund the lump sum with Age65.

If you choose to fund the whole lump sum by giving up pension instead, your AVC's can either be taken as a UFPLS meaning the first 25% of that is tax free, or transferred out to a personal pension.

UFPLS – Uncrystalised Funds Pension Lump Sum

[Kingy7185]

Very helpful.thank you.

Seems best to take the higher lump sum, and take 25% of the AVC then go back yearly and take the 25% tax free option.

Do I have this right ?

[RobertT]

If you've already used the full 25% tax free allowance from a pension, you can't use it again.

If you want to take the maximum lump sum by reducing your pension, you will then have two options with the AVC's:

1. Take it as a UFPLS, meaning the first 25% is tax free and the remainder classed as income and taxed under normal PAYE rules.

2. Transfer out to a personal pension where you will have 4 options listed here: viewtopic.php?p=1136593#p1136593

[heapsy]

AVC's are designed to fund some or potentially all of the tax free lump sum, so you don't have to give up any pension. They're best used with Age60 as you will have the DBCBS to fund the lump sum with Age65.

If you choose to fund the whole lump sum by giving up pension instead, your AVC's can either be taken as a UFPLS meaning the first 25% of that is tax free, or transferred out to a personal pension.

UFPLS – Uncrystalised Funds Pension Lump Sum

I have AVCs with my NRA60 pension, which almost certainly will not make up the full 25% lump sum. Will I be able to take some of the Cash Balance from the NRA65 pension, to make up the rest? Tia

[heapsy]

AVC's are designed to fund some or potentially all of the tax free lump sum, so you don't have to give up any pension. They're best used with Age60 as you will have the DBCBS to fund the lump sum with Age65.

If you choose to fund the whole lump sum by giving up pension instead, your AVC's can either be taken as a UFPLS meaning the first 25% of that is tax free, or transferred out to a personal pension.

UFPLS – Uncrystalised Funds Pension Lump Sum

I have AVCs with my NRA60 pension, which almost certainly will not make up the full 25% lump sum. Will I be able to take some of the Cash Balance from the NRA65 pension, to make up the rest? Tia

[RobertT]

I have AVCs with my NRA60 pension, which almost certainly will not make up the full 25% lump sum. Will I be able to take some of the Cash Balance from the NRA65 pension, to make up the rest? Tia

The DBCBS is only usually taken with 2012-2018 RMPP benefits. But as the RMPP are also responsible for some inflationary increases to RMSPS benefits, that has the effect of enabling some DBCBS to be taken alongside your Age60 pension aswell.

For most people that will only be a small amount. But there will be a minority of people who've increased their pensionable pay as a result of changing functions within RM and so their final salary pensions will have increased as a result.
The RMPP are also responsible for paying those added benefits, so they can often take more DBCBS with Age60 benefits than they otherwise would have done.

In both cases, members are given an 'Age60 final salary addition' figure which denotes how much Age60 pension the RMPP are responsible for.

This thread includes a few options forms that people have uploaded, to give you an idea of how much you may get.

To be honest I'm not really sure how they work out the Age60 final salary addition figure in the first place. But the amounts quoted seem to fit in with the usual way of working out how much you can take tax free from AVC's in relation to your main pension. You just need to use fs addition figure instead.

For example:
Final salary addition x 20 / 3 = DBCBS that can be taken with Age60.

In the case of Ebbzie's numbers in the link I provided, that would read:
£62 x 20 / 3 = £413

The benefit of being able to take some DBCBS with Ag60 benefits is that it'll be tax free, whereas you're more likely to pay tax on that amount if taken with Age65.
Although the tax saving in Ebbzie's case is only going to be about £82.