Civil Service Pension - Help Needed ...

[wolf63]

I am in receipt of a Civil Service pension which was awarded due to ill-health when I was 41 (2004). I received a lump sum and a 31/80ths pension.

I know that I am due a refund of my widows contributions at some stage. I want to know when. I tried looking up the Civil Service pension website and got a bit lost and bamboozled. I am not sure what this contribution and refund is called.

Can someone point me in the right direction? I just want to know at what date I will get the money. When I started working in 1980 the retirement age for girls was 40 - I think that it is about 66 now.

[Mamyalynne]

I can only help with what it's called...

WPS [Widow's/Widower's Pension Scheme] refund.

[wolf63]

thanks, mamy - I will have another look tomorrow when I am slightly more alert. It won't be much money but if it's mine I want it.

☺☺

[Mamyalynne]

There's quite a bit on Google isn't there, lot's of it quite old though - bound to be complicated.

Look tomorrow with a fresher mind.x

[woofgang]

Can I suggest you ask whever it is who administers your pension? You should at least have a contact for things like change of address and so on and that should be a good place to start.

[Prudie]

Agree with above, it looks like you can get it when you reach pension age and your CS pension administrator will know this as it has changed a lot over the years and doesn't necessarily match with old age pension age. I am also due a CS pension but won't get a widow's refund as I haven't been single.. A basic bit of help here
https://www.civilservicepensionscheme.org.uk/media/30000/crb-1.pdf

[Boto]

I got mine a few weeks after retiring and getting my pension. We just called it Widows and Orphans. I started in the CS in 1969 - retirement age for both men and women was 60.

[fiction-factory]

Was the figure of retirement age of 40 for girls a typo , wolf?

[wolf63]

FF, I think it was probably wishful thinking.

I will get back to searching for the answer to this question when my brain is less foggy. There is no point in trying to phone them until I can string a sentence together verbally.

[jennyjoan]

Mine was called Widows & Dependants. Remember getting quite a lump sum and so happy - it was actually put into my account - then some time late Civil Service - told me (not definite here) but I need to pay 40% back in Tax.

Think I was paid £7,000 and had to pay back something like £3,000 or it could have been £4,000 or thereabouts.

I got an agreement - I paid first £1,000 and let me pay the other £2-3,000 by instalments. I had had this money quite a while before I knew all about this.

[Rockrose]

Wouldn’t you have already been taxed on your pension jennyjoan?

[jennyjoan]

Yes - I was - this was an extreme disappointment. I am left work 12 years now and can't remember the details - all I know was told by a tax official (quite a nasty guy) who told me I needed to pay back that 40% tax.

This was about 3 or 4 years after I left. Also this applied to my friend who did not have a clue re the W&D/dependants - she had left 10 years earlier. When she heard me talking about it - she decided to apply for it and was okayed - received the lump sum and indeed too she had to pay 40% back too.