Advice and support
A pension means security in retirement. That is why the FDA is dedicated to protecting and improving yours.
We have raised collective concerns with the Cabinet Office about accuracy and provision of Annual Benefit Statements and will report back to members with any answers we receive. Further information on ABS rollout and how to raise a complaint about inaccuracies is available via this link.
We understand that there are problems with the production of ABS for partial retirees as it seems no one who is both an active member and in partial receipt of their pensions has received an ABS. Equally, we are hearing disturbing reports of partial retirees fully retiring and still having their pension abated several months later. If you are reading this and you have fully retired after partially retiring before or after 1 October 2023 – a key date for the 2015 Remedy Choice – and you are waiting for a retirement quote and your partial retirement pension is being paid at a reduced rate, please get in touch. For anyone wishing to understand partial retirement and the abatement scheme rules, we have provided a link to the factsheet available on the CS Pensions website.
For those members who are anticipating receipt of a Pensions Savings Statement (PSS) to assist with income tax returns and potential breaches of the HMRC Annual Allowance, we are still waiting for further information from the Cabinet Office when rollout will begin. Further information on PSS and the £60,000 Annual Allowance is available here but to note that the details have not been updated for the current tax year.
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Whether you are a member of the current civil service Partnership or Alpha schemes, the former Classic, Classic Plus, Premium and Nuvos legacy schemes, or a completely different pension scheme, the FDA has the expert knowledge and bargaining power to help ensure your future economic security.
We help secure better pensions for FDA members by:
Please do not ask your FDA reps for personal financial advice. They can provide you with information about your pension and your options but they are not financial advisers. Your reps are not accredited to provide income tax or financial advice, and they are not authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority to give advice.
The FDA will continue to keep members updated on the government’s plans for addressing the age discrimination as found in the McCloud judgment. In the meantime, members can access our FAQs on the McCloud and Sargeant judgments, and on the Treasury’s consultation on public sector pensions.
In late August the Recovery Taskforce announced that 2026 Annual Benefit Statements (ABS) would start to be uploaded onto the member portal from 31 August 2026. Regrettably matters have not gone as smoothly. With thanks to all those FDA members who have provided feedback, we are now aware of the range of problems experienced:
Understandably, and by law, members need an accurate and inclusive ABS to help them plan for retirement or make choices about investments elsewhere, particularly in the on-going absence of the online Pensions Modeller promised for delivery in May 2026 and still no sign of a revised delivery date. All of these collective issues have been raised with the Cabinet Office and a challenge made that perhaps priority was given to issuing ABS over and above the quality of the content. We await the response at the next meeting on 18 September 2026. If you have a 2025-26 ABS and there is something wrong, then do let us know by clicking the reporting feedback link at the end of this section. Additionally, do ensure that Capita is made aware of the issue by visiting this CS Pension Portal webpage: Raise an ABS query However, before you do, please check out the following related pages to see if these answer any questions: Annual Benefit Statement (ABS), Annual Benefit Statement FAQs, Before you view your ABS, ABS walkthrough video A reminder that not all scheme members receive an ABS. Pensioners and Deferred scheme members do not receive an ABS, including members who have been on unpaid leave or a career break and made no employee contributions to their alpha pension pot. All active members should receive an ABS and if you have not by 31 October 2026, please let the FDA know (see below).
One of the many issues FDA members have faced following years of unnacceptable scheme administration has been the absence of any Annual Benefit Statement (ABS). There have been several issues for members trying to view their ABS on the Civil Service Pensions Member Hub since Capita took over. Some members received no ABS for two years when MyCSP had the responsibility, this means that most active and deferred scheme members have had no means of checking how any legacy pension and/or their Alpha pension is now worth:
The FDA has listened to its members and we are pleased to announce that an interim solution has been developed that will allow you to forecast how your Alpha pension is building up from 1 April 2022 onwards. Our online Alpha pension accrual calculator is available here.
Members can enter their “pensionable earnings” for each year from 2022-23 onwards and the calculator will provide a cumulative total of your Alpha pension. For those who want to project their pension into the future, you will need to enter notional rates of CPI inflation and potential rises in your pensionable earnings factoring in promotions and retirement plans. We recognise that this is no permanent substitute to receiving your 2025-26 ABS from July onwards, but we hope this will help members gain a better understanding of their pension accrual. To note, pensionable earnings do not include overtime or the vast majority of allowances (e.g. recruitment and retention allowances) so do check your payslip for the end of March 2026. Additionally, the majority of active scheme members are affected by the 2015 Remedy (McCloud) which means that any pension accrued between 1 April 2015 to 31 March 2022 has been rolled back into their legacy scheme hence the reason why the FDA accrual calculator can only be used for accrual from 1 April 2022. Anyone wishing to delve deeper into Alpha accrual can access the FDA guide here. View calculator>
‘Gender Pension Gap Day‘ represents the point of the year that an average retired woman would run out of pension income if she was receiving it at the same rate as an average retired man. This year it took place on 21 August. It is based on research showing the gender pension gap in the UK is 36.5% – more than double the country’s gender pay gap. And it’s even worse for civil servants: the latest actuarial valuation of this scheme showed a gender gap of 45%. The FDA has raised this directly with the civil service scheme and is supporting a union initiative to close the gender pension gap for civil servants.
Some progress is being made. The local government pension scheme consulted on proposals that would close its gender gap significantly. We need the Cabinet Office to adopt these for the civil service scheme.
The FDA will continue to press for progress on behalf of members, and we are encouraging members to sign this petition in support of these efforts.
Need some advice?
FDA members are entitled to a free consultation with a financial advisor via FDA Portfolio.
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Problem with your pension?
Are you a member who needs the FDA’s help?
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Pension tax relief
Find out how the tax regime impacts FDA members’ pension savings.
Transfer from MyCSP to Capita
Important information regarding transfer of scheme administrator.
HELP
The majority of new starters in the civil service are auto-enrolled into the Alpha scheme, part of the Civil Service Pension Scheme.
Alpha is a defined benefit scheme, specifically it is a career average scheme. You may also hear the terms ‘CARE’ (Career Average Revalued Earnings).
This means your retirement income is based on your salary and length of service, rather than investment performance. In practice, this means you build up a guaranteed income for life, calculated using a set formula rather than the value of a pension pot that rises and falls with the stock market. In the case of the civil service schemes that formula is: Pension = Membership x Accrual Rate x Pensionable Pay. This makes it more stable and predictable than many private sector defined contribution pensions.
FDA reps can provide information about your pension scheme and your options, but they are not authorised financial advisers and cannot give personal financial or tax advice. However, FDA members are entitled to a free consultation with an independent financial adviser through FDA Portfolio, our member discounts programme. Find out more here.
