Pensions questionnaire and joiner tool

This tool will tell you the correct pension scheme to enrol your staff into, and ensure they receive the appropriate starter pack and information.

All new joiners and re-joiners after 1 April 2022 will have a choice of joining either the alpha scheme or the partnership scheme.

CSCS calculator

Please refer to the Employer Pension Guide, Section 6 for further guidance on Civil Service Compensation Scheme (CSCS).

CILON Calculator

This calculator is for you to work out the cost of compensation in lieu of notice.

The compensation in lieu of notice (CILON) calculator will ask you for the amount of salary, allowances and bonus to which the individual would have been entitled to had they remained in service during the notice period, and will calculate the loss of pension for the same period giving a total of CILON to be paid through the payroll. National insurance and tax should be deducted in the normal way.

Employers should refer to the Employer Pension Guide, Section 6 for further guidance on Civil Service Compensation Scheme (CSCS).

The calculator you should use for a particular individual depends on which scheme they were an active member of on their last day of service - even if they would have moved to alpha during their notice period. For example, a member of the PCSPS who has Tapered Protection and whose tapered alpha enrolment date was 1 June 2015 left service on 1 May 2015 and was due CILON for 3 months’ notice, would have their CILON calculated using the new PCSPS CILON calculator, notwithstanding the fact that they would have transferred into alpha if they had actually worked their notice period.

If the notice period goes over the scheme year end (31 March) you should run the calculator separately for the two periods using the appropriate salary and contribution rate for each period.

Please note, due to the transition to alpha through the 2015 Remedy, the PCSPS calculator is now obsolete and was removed 1 November 2022.

Member calculators

We have a range of calculators for members, including added pension and partial retirement calculators on the ember facing web pages.

Help using calculator tools

System and software requirements

  • Tools are required to be run on Windows versions of MS Excel 2007 (V14) and above.
  • Although the tools originate from the internet, they are uploaded and hosted by the Civil Service Pensions websites and should be considered ‘safe’.
  • The tools use Macros (VBA) for clearing cells and creating PDFs if required, therefore macros should be enabled to ensure full functionality.

Opening the tools

When a tool is first opened click the 'Enable Editing' button.

Enable editing

If the password prompt opens, click ‘Read Only’ to continue.

Read only

To ensure full functionality you must Enable Macros.

Enable macros

GDPR

The Scheme is committed to managing your personal information in line with the Data Protection Legislation. For more information please view our privacy policy.

Published:
17 December 2021
Last updated:
3 November 2023