Annual Benefit Statement (ABS)
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.
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.
Your statement will be available in the Pension Portal,
You will be able to view and download your ABS by 31 August 2023, and as per the distribution schedule.
The distribution schedule is a guide only. Occasionally we carry out additional checks to make sure you receive accurate information on your statement.
If you've changed employers since 31 March 2023, make sure to enter your previous employer.
If you already have a Pension Portal account
If you don’t yet have a Pension Portal account
You'll need to register for your Pension Portal account. Registering is easy and only takes a few minutes. Read or watch our helpful guide to registering for the Pension Portal to get set up.
There are two possible reasons for this:
If you have membership from 31 March 2012 through to 1 April 2015, you may be affected by 2015 Remedy (McCloud). Affected members will have a choice to make at retirement between alpha or legacy scheme benefits in relation to any continuous service between 1 April 2015 and 31 March 2022. You will be able to see information about how 2015 Remedy (McCloud) affects you in your ABS from 2024 onwards. In the meantime, please visit the 2015 Remedy (McCloud) section of the website to find out if and how you might be affected.
Each month, your employer will deduct pension contributions from your pensionable earnings (salary including pensionable allowances and bonuses). Your contributions are used to cover the cost of the pension scheme. The full amount does not go into your pension.
See the current contribution rates and pay bands.
alpha - your statement estimate is the total pension you have built up as of 31 March. This is based on 2.32% of your pensionable earnings each year.
Find out more about how your alpha pension is calculated in the alpha scheme guide.
nuvos - your statement estimate is the total pension you have built up as of 31 March. This is based on 2.3% of your pensionable earnings each year.
Find out more about how your nuvos pension is calculated in the scheme guide.
Find out more about how changes in working patterns can affect your pension.
We use the following to produce your statement:
The following don’t count as reckonable service:
Part-time service will be calculated on pro-rata basis.
This means your reckonable service could be lower than your total qualifying service (the total amount of time you’ve served in your current Civil Service employment).
Find out more about how changes in working patterns can affect your pension.
Find out more about how your pension is calculated in your scheme guide.
If you’re a Pre-Fresh Start prison officer with reserved rights, your reckonable service is doubled after you’ve served more than 20 years. As a result, your qualifying service may be lower than your reckonable service.
Your statement should include any transferred in pension and added benefits.
Your statement only shows details of your current active service, including aggregated or linked service.
Any unclaimed pension or previous service that was not aggregated or linked, will not show on your statement.
If you would like a current value for your unclaimed pension from previous Civil Service employment, contact us.
Your statement will only show reckonable service and pension from the day after you took partial retirement.
You can calculate a future pension estimate using the Retirement Modeller in the Pension Portal.
If you are unable to access the Portal, you can use the manual Retirement Modeller. You will need to input the figures from your statement into the Modeller.
If you moved into alpha from one of the other Civil Service pension schemes (classic, classic plus, premium, nuvos), your ABS will show the pension amounts for both schemes. The rules and benefits for each scheme may be different.
The below link provides further guidance.
Death while you are in service - Section 06b - alpha scheme guide
The easiest way to nominate or amend your death benefit nomination is by using the Pension Portal.
You must have more than 12 months of service to qualify for survivor’s benefits. If you have less than 12 months of service, your ABS will not include survivor's benefits.
If you are a man and you were in post before 1 June 1972, your service before that date will normally provide a widow’s pension equal to one third of your pension (unless you chose to pay increased contributions to increase this to half).
If you are a woman and were in post before 1 June 1987, you were only able to provide a widower’s pension if your husband was dependent on you.
Your statement takes into account any Pension Sharing Orders that have been sent to us. However, Earmarking Orders, which are based on the value of your benefits when you come to retire, aren’t included.
We have published the most common queries on this page. We strongly advise you check here first.
Scheme guides that may answer lots of your questions can be found in the scheme guides.
Scheme guides
We receive a high volume of queries about Annual Benefit Statements and aim to answer all of them by March 2024.
For questions about your ABS not listed on this page, please get in touch using our Online Contact Form.
Please contact your employer’s HR department or Shared Service Centre with any questions about your personal details, for example:
If you're due to retire or you're leaving the scheme, please follow the usual process. A full review of your record will take place at this point. You don't need to wait for a response from an ABS query.
Until 2021, we produced over half a million statements each year, using seven million pieces of paper. By going paperless, we have saved over 100 tonnes of CO2 each year, as well as giving you quicker, easier, and more secure access to your statement.
If you need a paper copy, please ensure you request this before 31 May. You can print your own paper copy by logging in to the Pension Portal or completing our Contact Us form.
If you have changed address recently, don’t forget to update your details.
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 contact us to request a benefit statement.