CS Employers Q4 2024 update
In this quarterly update for employers, we’re bringing together all the critical information and actions shared between October 2024 and December 2024 in one place.
In this quarterly update for employers, we’re bringing together all the critical information and actions shared between October 2024 and December 2024 in one place.
If you have a question regarding the pension scheme the best place to start is with the available guidance in the ‘Employer’ section of the Civil Service Pensions website. This includes the Employer Pension Guide and Employer Pension Notices (EPNs). The Employer Pension Guide in particular provides employers with guidance on what action to take and what processes to follow for a wide range of scenarios.
Also included on the website are a number of publications, such as scheme booklets, which provide information on a number of frequently asked questions you may receive from your members. The search bar on the website can also be used to retrieve both member and employer guidance on specific topics.
If you’ve been unable to answer your query using the above resources, the first point of contact for all employer queries should be the employer helpline. The contact number for this line is 0300 123 1040. You'll be asked to enter a five digit passcode, which will have been communicated to you in a separate correspondence from our Enquiry Centre. You'll need to wait to be asked before entering the passcode for it to be accepted. If you need to obtain the passcode, please email ERMExternalMailbox@mycsp.co.uk.
MyCSP had a deadline to deliver Annual Benefit Statements to all members by 31 August 2024. This has been successfully completed for 98% of the overall member population; however, due to the impact of Remedy, there are a small number of members (under 2% of members due to receive an ABS) who will not receive their 2024 ABS.
This applies to members affected by Remedy with a Deferred Choice Underpin (DCU) and who:
Purchased EPA/EEPA during any of the Remedy period (1 April 2015 – 31 March 2022).
Are affected by data issues which prevent an ABS being produced at this time.
As this is a breach of the Public Service Pensions Act 2013, we have reported this to the pensions regulator.
Please note that any member planning to retire can follow the normal retirement process and will still receive their retirement quote which will include all the relevant figures, including anything relating to their Remedy options.
Public service pensions remedy (McCloud) – Remedy Pension Savings Statements
If you’ve received a ‘Remedy’ or ‘Remediable’ Pension Savings Statement (Remedy PSS) from your pension scheme with details of your revised Pension Input Amounts for the tax years 2015/2016 to 2022/2023, you might be wondering what it means and what you need to do next.
To receive a Remedy PSS, a member must be subject to the 2015 Remedy and in any year during the Remedy period or 2022/2023 tax year have:
Changes to public service pension schemes (known as the ‘public service pensions remedy’ or ‘2015 McCloud Remedy’) might mean that pension-related tax charges you have previously paid need to be recalculated or that new tax charges are due.
HMRC has developed an online service to help you calculate these changes to your pension tax charges, calculate your public service pension adjustment service.
The service will tell you whether you’re due a refund of tax you’ve previously paid, to have a past Scheme Pays debit adjusted, or if you’ve got new tax charges to pay. It will also tell you if none of these apply, in which case you will not need to take any further action and you should not require any further information from MyCSP. The service walks you through a series of steps and automatically transmits your information to your pension scheme, where
You can contact HMRC’s specialist team at publicservicepensionsremedy@hmrc.gov.uk or on 0300 123 1079 (select option 1) for help with information about your taxable income, Self-Assessment returns or personal allowance for previous years.
Members of the alpha scheme can increase their pension by buying Added Pension – an extra amount of annual pension that when purchased will be combined with their Civil Service pension when they retire.
Members can also buy an EPA, or ‘Effective Pension Age’. EPA allows members to pay more on top of their normal alpha pension contributions to build up an EPA portion of pension. This portion can be paid either one, two or three years before Normal Pension Age, without any early payment reduction.
If a member has bought the maximum amount of alpha added pension, they cannot buy an EPA.
Added Penson can be bought by:
Members can still buy a lump sum amount of Added Pension for the current scheme year (2024/25). Depending on how it is bought, the deadlines for this are shown below.
Added Pension and EPA contracts for the 2025/26 scheme year will start from 1 April 2025.
The Added Pension & EPA page of the scheme website has been updated with information about the deadlines for buying Added Pension by Lump Sum for the current scheme year; and the limits and deadlines for buying Added Pension and EPA during the next scheme year.
Please ensure your staff are aware of limits and deadlines on the Added Pension & EPA page.
Changes to salary thresholds:
Employee pension contribution rates in 2022/23 and 2023/2024
|
Annualised rate of pensionable earnings |
Member/ Employee contribution rate |
|
|
From |
To |
|
|
£0 |
£32,000 (£23,100) |
4.60% |
|
£32,001 (£23,101) |
£56,000 |
5.45% |
|
£56,001 |
£150,000 |
7.35% |
|
£150,001 |
- |
8.05% |
In preparation for the transition of the Civil Service Pension scheme administration to the new Scheme Administrator in December 2025, MyCSP has conducted a review of all open Statements of Work (SoWs) and the SoW process. As such, we're issuing new information for SoWs submitted prior to 1st October 2024, we're also revising the process for new SoWs, submitted after 1st October 2024.
There'll be no change to current practice for Statements of Work relating to Added Years, Added Pension, Bulk Transfers, Resource Accounts and Payroll Migrations.
The Regional Employer Forums were held, a copy of the slide deck can be accessed via the link below;
January 2025
March 2025
Keep an eye on the year ahead: The 2024 online scheme year planner is available now.
Have you heard of Pension Power? Pension Power provides members with all the facts they need about their Civil Service Pension via Teams in just one hour. Its free, sessions run daily and we provide tailored sessions for New Joiners too.
Coming this February. In this edition of Hot Topics, we’ll be focussing on Resource Accounts. We’ll be joined by our Training team, who will guide you through what to do if you get involved in this exercise.