My Pension+: Your Retirement in Your Hands
The North East Scotland Pension Fund (NESPF) is dedicated to helping you feel confident about your pension and as a result, more prepared for retirement when the time comes. One of the ways we are doing this is through our member self-service portal, My Pension+.
The NESPF’s member self-service portal is currently going through an exciting transformation. In partnership with our developer, Heywood Pension Technologies, the Fund is pioneering a new-look website and is one of the first funds to implement a host of new and advanced features, including the Retirement Planner.
Be Retirement Ready
Despite more people saving for their retirement, there is still an element of confusion over how much we should be aiming to save. Some of us might assume that because we are saving, we are on track, when in fact what we’re paying in might not be sufficient for the retirement goals we have in mind.
That’s where the Retirement Planner can help. It’s based on the Retirement Living Standards which essentially shows much money is needed for different lifestyles. Each standard is based around a basket of goods and services with monthly outgoings such as leisure expenses, holiday funds, car maintenance and food shopping.
By understanding the type of lifestyle you want, the standards can give you an idea of how much money you’ll need to save. The retirement planner then shows you how much your pension might be at retirement vs the lifestyle that you want.
As well as giving you an idea of how much money you’ll need, the planner also:
- Pulls all your pension records into one - if you have multiple records with us, the planner pulls together all your savings. So unlike previous calculators, instead of having to run multiple calculations and add them together, the retirement planner does it all for you.
- See how taking it at different ages and with different lump sums affect its value – most people would like to retire early but to do so you need to ensure your pension will be enough. With the retirement planner you can see what your pension will be at different ages, and see how taking a lump sum changes its value.
- You can add in other sources of income to build a clearer overall picture of your retirement – if you have pensions elsewhere or other financial resources you can add these in to get a more complete overview of your savings and check whether you’re on track to meet your desired lifestyle.
How it works
The Retirement Planner is available for our Active members (members paying into the scheme) and Deferred members (those with pension on hold).
To use it, simply login to your My Pension+ account and select “Plan my Retirement” on the homepage. There are three steps within the Retirement planner:
- Step 1: Choose your retirement lifestyle – Here you need think about the type of lifestyle you want. There are details on the different standards to help you decide which one best suits you.
- Step 2: Customise your lifestyle - This step gives an estimated cost and allows you to input and edit figures based on your expenses. Do you want to be able to give to charity each month; will you still have mortgage or rental costs you need to consider; do you need to consider car costs; or do you plan to mostly travel using public services? These prompts can help you consider your personal circumstances, and tailor your outgoings to you.
- Step 3: The results - You will be shown the level of income necessary to meet your preferred lifestyle and compare this figure against the expected income from your NESPF pension. There is also the ability to change your retirement age and lump sum to view how these may impact your pension value.
The tool also allows you to save your retirement goal to refer back to it at a later date, or alternatively you can refresh the Retirement Planner to input new figures and model different scenarios.
To use the Retirement Planner visit My Pension+ and register or log in to the My Pension+ portal.
