pension discussion

techteacher

Hi all just a quick thread to see what people are doing as a back up plan

the government are pushing the retirement date higher and higher as they seem prefer you to die than pay you your pension :rolleyes:

If you are considering retirement in the next 12 or so years perhaps you could

jump in on some Discussion points.....

if you choose to retire early at say 30 years of service? how much can you get ?

general opinion , Do you think AVCs are worth it when getting close to D DAY or would a PRSA be better?
Can you set up a PRSA / PRB as a backup plan to cover you with an early cash out?
Are cornmarket the only game in town for AVC options?
Yes I plan on asking them to come in school/zoom in winter for a meeting

KrustyBurger

I'm buying back notional years via the dept. I had to get private pension advice as the athlone dept seem to be severely underresourced. Impossible to reach by phone and 6 months awaiting an email reply. I'll be retired God willing in less than 5 years.

It's very frustrating trying to get information from Athlone.

pandoraj09

There's a guy called Eavan Hughes who runs PSRA in Maynooth. He often presents a 2 hour session on pensions in Education Centres. The session is great and you get emailed the powerpoint. You can then avail of a discount off a private consultation with him where he will go through all your queries etc. It was the best 100 euro I ever spent. He's been doing Public Service pensions for many years. He told me about things like a last minute AVC just before you retire. Well well worth your while contacting him.

KrustyBurger

I'll second that. Great guy and laid it out very clearly for me.

Geuze

techteacher wrote: »

general opinion , Do you think AVCs are worth it when getting close to D DAY or would a PRSA be better?
Can you set up a PRSA / PRB as a backup plan to cover you with an early cash out?
Are cornmarket the only game in town for AVC options?

You can set up an PRSA-AVC with any broker.

Cornmarket specialise in PS financial matters, but note that they make 33% profits, due to their high costs/fees.

Also note that they are owned by Irish Life, so they may push IL plans.

However, if you want advice, they do have a lot of experience of PS pensions.

Geuze

techteacher wrote: »

if you choose to retire early at say 30 years of service? how much can you get ?

The formulae to calculate pension benefits is widely available, so any teacher should be able to calculate their future pension.

With the new Single PS scheme, it's more complex.

Treppen

Geuze wrote: »

The formulae to calculate pension benefits is widely available, so any teacher should be able to calculate their future pension.

With the new Single PS scheme, it's more complex.

Here's one for you Geuze, if you could advise; What if you had years of ad-hoc subwork and not full-hours contracts but paid into the pension scheme in every payslip (pre 2011 and never broke the 26 week rule).

How is all that calculated ?

Would it just be a case of ringing up the pensions dept and hoping they get it right?

Also in terms of PRSA-AVC people were recommending LABrokers on boards a few years ago as having a very low commission fee with Zurich. But the guy will give you zero advice (unless you pay him for consultation which is fair enough I suppose).

rainbowtrout

techteacher wrote: »

if you choose to retire early at say 30 years of service? how much can you get ?

You don't provide enough information. When did you start teaching? Were all of those years fulltime? What age will you be at potential retirement age?

There is plenty of information out there that you should start reading about the teaching pension.

Treppen

rainbowtrout wrote: »

You don't provide enough information. When did you start teaching? Were all of those years fulltime? What age will you be at potential retirement age?

There is plenty of information out there that you should start reading about the teaching pension.

What if your years aren't full-time, subwork + below 18 hr contracts?

Geuze

Treppen wrote: »

Here's one for you Geuze, if you could advise; What if you had years of ad-hoc subwork and not full-hours contracts but paid into the pension scheme in every payslip (pre 2011 and never broke the 26 week rule).

How is all that calculated ?

Would it just be a case of ringing up the pensions dept and hoping they get it right?

Messy.

I suppose anybody starts by writing down all the key dates, and trying to add up all the pensionable service?

I am not an expert here.

Do the ETBs / DES issue statements of work history?


The DSP issue statements of PRSI conts made, that's not directly relevant here, but may help?

Geuze

Treppen wrote: »

Also in terms of PRSA-AVC people were recommending LABrokers on boards a few years ago as having a very low commission fee with Zurich. But the guy will give you zero advice (unless you pay him for consultation which is fair enough I suppose).

I am usually anti-Cornmarket.

However, if a person is the type of person that wants their hand held as they set up an AVC, and is willing to pay for that, then fair enough, Cornmarket do have a lot of experience, and will send staff to schools / houses.

Personally, I hate paying fees/commissions, especially when I see the Cornmarket rep in a better car than I have!!!!

Yes, you can't really have it both ways: get low fees and advice, in Ireland, pity.

rainbowtrout

Treppen wrote: »

What if your years aren't full-time, subwork + below 18 hr contracts?

It'll take a while to put it together, but it's not impossible. Start off by working out a timeline of employment as much as is possible. Get a statement of service from your current employer DES/ETB and see do they match up. If there is a discrepancy, then go back to former employers (a pain in the arse I know) and get a statement of service to them and forward it to your current employer to get it updated.

A friend of mine who has done a lot of subbing, maternity leaves over the years always got a statement of service leaving a school to keep on top of this.

mbradso2003

rainbowtrout wrote: »

It'll take a while to put it together, but it's not impossible. Start off by working out a timeline of employment as much as is possible. Get a statement of service from your current employer DES/ETB and see do they match up. If there is a discrepancy, then go back to former employers (a pain in the arse I know) and get a statement of service to them and forward it to your current employer to get it updated.

A friend of mine who has done a lot of subbing, maternity leaves over the years always got a statement of service leaving a school to keep on top of this.

This is really good advice coming from someone who works with both public and private sector pensions. It is never to early to ensure service details are correct, this enables you to plan for retirement accurately and calculate shortfalls etc

HerrKuehn

There is a lot of terminology around pensions and it can be a bit confusing. If setting up a PRSA with broker make sure to check the "allocation rate". With LA brokers it is 100%, with others it can be 95%. This means the broker keeps 5% of everything you put in!

Snodge

Hi. I am an NQT so apologies if the answer to my question is obvious.... how does pension work in private schools where you are paid by the school rather than the DES?

rainbowtrout

Snodge wrote: »

Hi. I am an NQT so apologies if the answer to my question is obvious.... how does pension work in private schools where you are paid by the school rather than the DES?

If you are privately paid you are an employee like any private sector worker. You are not paying into the public sector pension and if you get Dept hours in the future in that school or another one the years you spent on a private contract do not count for pension purposes. They would like any private employer have to give you the option of paying into a private pension so it would depend on which one they chose.

Treppen

Snodge wrote: »

Hi. I am an NQT so apologies if the answer to my question is obvious.... how does pension work in private schools where you are paid by the school rather than the DES?

Be careful, some schools pay way under what the DES pay with zero holiday pay, some schools pay exactly the same and you get paid the same as when DES teachers are off.

You might also find they won't put you on any private party scale so it'd be the same wages for ever while your other DES nqt friends get a pay rise every year.
If the school is any good they'll move you over to DES as the years go by!

I'd consider it a stop gap if you have nothing else on offer, but never stop looking for another DES paid job.

Schools are supposed to facilitate you paying into your own pension but there are quite a lot that do nothing and you have to sort it yourself ( internet search for a PRSA pension).

dingding

The information is available. A couple of things.

1. When you started determines the scheme you are in, the class of PRSI stamp you pay and the normal retirememnt age 60, 65 or higher.
2. If you go before your normal retirement age 60 or 65 your pension is acturaly reduced by approx 5% per year, the detailed reduction is available.
3. Your pension if you are class A is co-ordinated with your SW pension, so you don't get the benefit of it, it is reduced by it.
4. If you work in the public sector when on a public sector pension, your pay is very muched reduced and if on a decent pension it probably wont pay.
5. If you retire you may have to claim Unmeployment for the first year and this is reduced from your pension, although I believe this is challenge. The impact of this is that you have to be available for work, training and that your international travel is impacted.
6. If you retire early due to ill health there are a range of additions which you might be entitled to such as added years etc....
7. Look up the professional added years scheme which may give you additional years pension, probably more appropate to Higher Education. This depends on the job requirement of the first role that you were employed on. If a masters was an essential quallification you are probably good for a year.
8. Your leaving salary will have less reductions such as pension, union dues, social clubs, tax etc.. To find your take home pay look at the tax calculators and set them up for a private sector. As a rule of thumb if you are higher on the scales and you are on 1/2 pay, your take home pay could be of the order of 75%.
9. The last minute AVC is worth looking at, however there are lifetime limits so if you previously for redundancy etc, there may be a cap on the amount of tax free money that you can claim.
10. If you are in the TUI income continuance plan it has a feature that you can get life insurance but you need to apply within a defined short time of leaving. Figure out what your commitments and life insurance that you will require, remembering that most policys are term and do not go beyond a certain age.

Note I am not a pensions professional, I just have been looking at it recently. I did not present the exact reductions / etc, I only speak in general terms as each case may be different.