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Along with your salary, your pension is one of the most important benefits of joining the Civil Service.
Take control of your pension savings and learn how to keep your account up to date
Whether you're planning to retire or thinking about your pension, get information to help you plan for your future.
Support for pensioners and help claiming your pension if you've left the Civil Service
Get access to calculators, forms, updates and scheme guides
This is the latest and easiest way to get in touch with us.
If you're having problems with your Pension Portal account, or accessing the pension Portal, please visit our Pension Portal support page where you'll find some help and guidance to the most common issues.
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Annual Benefit Statements (ABS) show an estimate of the total pension you have built up, to 31 March of the current year.
ABS are issued to current members of the scheme between June and 31 August each year. Former members can request an ABS.
If you no longer want to view your ABS online, and would like to receive paper statements get in touch using the button below:
Pension Savings Statements (PSS) help you understand if you have a tax charge to pay on the pension you have built up in a given tax year.
They typically apply to members who exceed the Annual Allowance or earn over £100,000.
If you want to understand the value of your pension, you’ll need an Annual Benefit Statement instead.
If you want to understand your PSS then visit our dedicated hub using the links below.
Your Annual Benefit Statement (ABS) is issued annually and shows an estimate of your pension benefits, up to 31 March of the current year. The estimate is based on information provided by your employer.
If you want to understand your ABS then visit our dedicated hub using the links below.
We have some useful information on Added Pension and Effective Pension Age (EPA) which could answer your questions.
If you've previously worked for the Civil Service, you might be entitled to a Civil Service Pension. If so, you'll be able to trace and claim your pension when you retire.
Partial retirement allows active pension scheme members to take some or all their pension and tax-free lump sum and continue working.
You can Partially Retire if:
If you are partially retired and what you earn from your salary and pension exceeds your pre-retirement salary, we deduct the excess from your pension. This is called Abatement.
You can choose to claim your pension early any time after your pension scheme’s early retirement age:
If you claim your pension early, it will be reduced because it is paid early.
If you have service in two schemes with different early retirement ages – for example classic and alpha – you can claim one before the other.
If you still work for the Civil Service and want to claim your pension, or are planning your retirement in the future:
The whole retirement process usually takes around 4 months. You can get more detail on each step in our guide to claiming your pension.
You can apply for ill health retirement if you have to leave your job early because you’re too ill to work.
To qualify for ill health retirement, you must:
We have a range of tools you can use to make informed decisions about your retirement.
Tools include:
Retirements usually takes around 4 months from when you tell your employer you want to retire.
You can get more information on the retirements process in the step by step guide to claiming your pension.
If the pension scheme member was not receiving their pension when they died, you can inform us using the government's Tell Us Once Service which will also inform most other government services at the same time.
If you'd rather contact us directly, please complete the form below.
If the pension scheme member was retired and receiving their pension when they died, please contact us as soon as possible to avoid any overpayments being made.
You can call our specialist team on 0300 123 66 66 or if you'd rather not speak to anyone, select 'no' below and complete the form.
If you're claiming your pension whether you are still in service or fully retired , you need to change your details by contacting MyCSP. Please get in touch using our Online change of details form – pensioners.
If you live outside the UK, you’ll also need to complete an Overseas Payment Mandate and send it to us along with completing the Online change of details form – pensioners.
If you’ve left the Civil Service and have an unclaimed Civil Service pension, we will ask for your bank details during the retirement process.
If you still work for the Civil Service or you’re receiving your pension, you can update your phone number, address or email address using the Pension Portal.
If you can’t access the Pension Portal and still work for the Civil Service, please inform your employer, who will then share your new details with us.
If you are receiving your pension, you can change your phone number or email address by completing the Online Change of details form – pensioners.
If you’ve left the Civil Service and have an unclaimed Civil Service pension, you can change your contact details by completing the Change of details and retirement form – deferred members.
If you still work for the Civil Service, you'll need to change your details by informing your employer, who will then share your new details with us.
If you’re already receiving your pension, complete the Online Change of details form – pensioners.
If you’ve left the Civil Service and have an unclaimed Civil Service pension, complete the Online Change of details and retirement application form – deferred members.
You might also find this information helpful:
If you still work for the Civil Service or you’re receiving your pension, the fastest way to change or add a death benefit nomination is by using the Pension Portal.
If you’ve left the Civil Service and have an unclaimed Civil Service pension or can’t access the Pension Portal, complete and return a Death Benefit Nomination form.
If you're struggling to register for the Pension Portal, our step-by-step guide covers all the most common questions to help you access to your account for the first time.
If you’ve been unable to register – it might be because you already have an account on the portal. You can check and regain access with these steps:
If you've entered your username and/or password incorrect multiple times there's a chance you're locked out of your Pension Portal Account. If you continue to see this message please use the contact form below to get in touch, so that we can reset your password.
One of our team will reply to the email address you've provided, and give you a 'temporary' password, which you can use to login.Â
Please note: This temporary password is single use, and you'll be prompted to create a new password straight away, so be sure to have a pen and paper handy to write down your new password, and remember to keep it safe.
Please note:Â your username is NOT your email address, it's the username you used when creating your Pension Portal Account
We've also got lot's of useful information in our Guide to registering for the Pension Portal.
If you’re new to the Pension Portal and are unsure on how to use the new Retirement Modeller, we’ve set up a dedicated page that explains how it works, frequently asked questions and exclusions on the calculations being used.
If you’ve visited this page and still have questions, get in touch using the form below.
If you aren't registered for the Pension Portal, you can sign up here.
If you have already requested your ABS from us, our pension experts will aim to have this issued within 40 working days.
You don't need to do anything; If we need anything from you we will be in touch.
You can also find useful information on the I've left and have an unclaimed pension (deferred) page
When you left, you should have received a statement of your pension benefits.
If you have an unclaimed pension and want to know how much it is worth, you can request a Benefit Statement by selecting the 'No' button under 'Did this answer your question' at the bottom of this page, You'll then be able to complete our online contact form.
You should receive your statement within 2 months.
You can also find useful information on the I've left and have an unclaimed pension (deferred) page.
Current scheme members will be issued an Annual Benefit Statement automatically between 1 June and 31 August of the current year.
You can see when your statement is likely to be available in the distribution schedule.
If the distribution schedule indicates that your statement should already be available, please don’t worry. Occasionally we need to complete additional checks to make sure you receive accurate information on your statement.
You can access the ABS distribution schedule on the ABS hub page.
Former members need to request an ABS. If you have done so, you will receive your statement within two months of your request.
Your Annual Benefit Statement (ABS) is issued annually and shows an estimate of your pension benefits, up to 31 March of the current year. The estimate is based on information given to us by your employer.
Answers to the most common questions we get asked about ABS are on the Annual Benefit Statements hub page.
You'll be able to view and download your ABS via the Pension Portal no later than 31 August.
Our response times vary, depending on the volume of enquiries we’re receiving at the time. Peak time for ABS queries is usually between July and September, so please bear with us if you’ve sent a query during this period. If you sent your query to us before 31 December this year, we’ll get back to you no later than 28 February.
If you are a former scheme member who has previously requested a benefit statement, you should receive your statement within 2 months.
2024 is the first year that most members, who are impacted by the 2015 Remedy (McCloud), will be able to see rolled back statements.
Therefore, if as part of the introduction of alpha, you moved into the alpha scheme before 1 April 2022, your figures will look different in the ABS this year. As you have been rolled back into your Legacy scheme (classic, classic plus, premium or nuvos) for the Remedy period (1 April 2015 - 31 March 2022), you will be shown this information as well as all service to 31 March 2024.
We’ll send a Pension Savings Statement (PSS) to you if you met one or more of the following criteria at 5 April:
Further information and guidance on how to calculate tapered annual allowance can be found on HMRC’s website.
There's lots of useful information on our Pension Savings Statements page.
We aim to resolve your PSS query within 20 working days of receipt of your query.
This timescale may be affected if we need information from your employer to answer your query.
Peak time for PSS queries is usually between September and December, so please bear with us if you’ve sent a query during this period.
When you first join the Civil Service, your new employer will give you a Pension Choices pack with information on the pension scheme.
To transfer a old pension in to your Civil Service pension, we must receive your signed declaration to proceed within 12 months of the date you joined the Civil Service. Depending on your other pension provider, the process to transfer a pension in can take 3-6 months.
If you haven't already, please complete the 'Transfer In Application form' and return it to us. Approximately 2 weeks after we receive your completed form, we’ll request transfer details from your previous pension provider. 3 weeks after we receive the transfer details from your previous pension provider, we’ll write to you to confirm how much Civil Service pension benefits the transfer will buy you and information on how to proceed.
If you leave employment in the Civil Service, you can request to transfer your Civil Service pension out to another pension provider.
Speak to your new pension provider to request a transfer as they'll need to contact us to start the transfer process.
Approximately 3 weeks after we receive the request, we'll send a transfer out quotation and forms to either you or your new pension administrator, depending on who has requested it.
The most commonly requested forms are available on this website. If you know the name of the form you’re looking for, you can use the website search at the top of the page.
Otherwise you can check the Member forms page linked below for the form you need.
If your form isn’t listed there, click ‘No’ below and send us a request.
There is lots of useful information on our on our Pensioner Hub. It contains information about:
If you are partially retired, you may also find this content about abatement helpful.
There is lots of useful information on our on our Leaving the pension scheme before pension age page. It contains information and timescales about:
Do you require a calculation of your benefits for divorce purposes? (also known as a Cash Equivalent Transfer Value, or CETV)
For further information regarding divorce; please refer to the ‘Pensions and divorce, dissolution or annulment’ and the ‘What to expect’ guides below.
You can only access your lump sum at retirement, it’s not possible to claim all or part of your lump sum before retirement. The earliest you can do that is from your scheme’s early retirement age:
Claiming your pension early will permanently reduce the amount of pension you receive.
The 2015 Remedy affects over 400,000 current and former Civil Servants. Those affected will be offered a choice about how they would like their pension to be calculated for any service between 2015 – 2022.
We’ve developed a range of resources and tools to help you understand the 2015 Remedy:
At Civil Service Pensions we make every effort to get things right first time. If there's a problem, please let us know by visiting our dedicated complaints page.
We'll do our best to fix things quickly.
As part of the 2015 Remedy (McCloud), we are required to provide impacted members with a choice of pension benefits for their remediable service (service during the Remedy Period: 1 April 2015 - 31 March 2022). This applies to members who retired before October 1, 2023, and had taken remediable service benefits at that time. The members impacted are partially or formally retired members still in employment and fully retired members.
If you have an Immediate Choice query and have received your Immediate Choice Remediable Service Statement (RSS), we encourage you to review the Immediate Choice website section, which includes helpful information (i.e. What to Expect Guide, FAQs) to guide and assist with any queries.
Please provide some details through this form and we will get back to you.
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