Where will your retirement money come from?

This type of scheme is usually an employer sponsored occupational pension scheme. It defines the benefits that are payable at retirement. The Local Government Pension Scheme and Teachers Pension scheme offered by the University are Defined Benefit schemes.

You may have seen over the past number of years changes in your own scheme, from a ‘final salary’ basis to a ‘career average’ basis. This means that your pension entitlement is now based on your pensionable salary for each year’s membership of the scheme, not on the salary you are earning when you start to draw your pension benefits.

It’s also worth knowing that a useful method to boost your retirement savings is through Additional Voluntary Contributions (AVC’s) which are defined contribution pension schemes that allow you to pay in extra contributions. The advantage of these pension savings is that you will have an extra pot of money that you can choose to receive in a number of ways, depending on the pension scheme you are a member of.

For more information on how your pension is calculated please see the pension schemes’ website.

This type of scheme can be set up by an employer who also normally contributes to the scheme, or by an individual, where contributions are invested into one or more investment funds.  The University provides the Universities & College Retirement Savings Scheme under this type of arrangement.

Your employer, workplace pension scheme administrators or pension provider should be able to confirm what type of pension they hold for you.

There are many ways you can fund your income in retirement. You can use cash, ISAs, equity from downsizing your home, and other savings and investments you may have as well as pension savings to fund your retirement. Please refer to our savings and investments section for more information.

Retirement can last a long time, but by creating a budget, you can estimate how much income you might need.