Pension and lump sum

There are four arrangements within the Research Councils' Pension Scheme (RCPS): Classic, Classic Plus, Premium and Nuvos. Classic, Classic plus and Premium are all final salary Schemes. Nuvos is a career average earnings scheme.

Members are able to vary their Lump Sum when accessing their pension benefits.

Classic

The Classic Scheme is an 80th Scheme with a pension age of 60. The Classic Scheme closed to new members with effect from 1 October 2002.

If you are in Classic, on retiring you will receive a tax free lump sum and an annual pension, normally paid monthly, which is increased each year by the Consumer Price Index (CPI). Both are based on the length of Reckonable Service; the amount of service used to calculate the award and amount of Pensionable Pay; the salary used to calculate the award.

The annual pension is 1/80th of Pensionable Pay x Reckonable Service. The standard lump sum is normally three times the annual pension.

There is an option to convert some or all of the lump sum to extra pension, this is called Inverse Commutation (PDF, 286KB) - opens in new window.

Classic Plus

Classic Plus is a hybrid of the Classic and the Premium Schemes, it has a pension age of 60. Service prior to 1 October 2002 is treated as the Classic, after this date it is treated as Premium .

If you are in Classic Plus, on retiring you receive an annual pension and a tax free lump sum based on your benefits accrued to 30  September 2002; for service after this date you receive a pension with the option of converting some of the pension to a tax free lump sum at the rate of £1 of pension surrendered to receive £12 of lump sum. The pension is paid monthly and is increased each year in line with the Consumer Price Index.

Premium

The Premium scheme is a 60th Scheme and it is for members that joined between 1 October 2002 and 30 July 2007. The pension age for Premium is 60.

If you are in Premium, when you retire you will receive an annual pension, normally paid monthly, which is increased each year in line with the Consumer Price Index based on the length of Reckonable Service; the amount of service used to calculate the award and level of final Pensionable Pay; the salary used to calculate the award.

The pension is 1/60th of final Pensionable Pay x Reckonable Service.

There is an option to convert part of the pension to a lump sum at the rate of £1 of pension surrendered to receive £12 of lump sum.

Nuvos

The Nuvos scheme is a career average Scheme and it is the current scheme for new members who joined with effect from 30 July 2007. The pension age for Nuvos is 65.

If you are in Nuvos when you retire you receive an annual pension, normally paid monthly, which is increased each year in line with the Consumer Price Index based on the Nuvos pension built up over the course of your Nuvos scheme membership.

The pension is 2.3% of pensionable earnings for each scheme year. The scheme year runs from 1 April to 31 March.

There is an option to convert part of the pension to a lump sum at the rate of £1 of pension surrendered to receive £12 of lump sum.