NHS Pension Forecast Calculator (England)

• Age: Select the age when you enrolled in the NHS pension scheme (must be between 18 and 68)
• Start Year: Select the year you enrolled in the NHS pension scheme (must be 2015 or later)

Once you've entered these details, the calculator will generate a timeline from your start year until your retirement age (68).

If you have existing pension pot values from previous years, you can enter them in the "Enter your historic pension pot values" section. You can check your pension history through the myNHSPension portal:

• Enter the pension pot value (in £)
• Select the year this value applies to
• Click "Add to Timeline" to include this value in your forecast

This is useful if you already know your pension values from previous years and want to include them in your forecast.

For future years (2024 onwards), you need to specify your expected salary bands:

• Salary Band: Select your NHS pay band (Band 2 through Band 9)
• Years of Experience: Select your years of experience in that band (affects your salary within the band)
• Start year of service: Select the first year this band applies to
• Number of Years: Select how many consecutive years you expect to remain in this band
• Location: Select your work location (affects location allowance)
• Unsocial Hours Income: Enter any additional income from unsocial hours (if applicable)
• Click "Add to Timeline" to include these years in your forecast

You can add multiple bands to cover different periods of your career. The Timeline View will show all your entries.

In the "Prediction Settings" section, select your preferred forecast scenarios:

• Treasury Order Prediction: This affects how your pension pots are expected to grow each year

  • Low (1%): Conservative growth estimate
  • Medium (3%): Moderate growth estimate
  • High (5%): Optimistic growth estimate
• Pay Rise Prediction: This affects how your salary is expected to increase in future years

  • Low (1%): Conservative salary growth
  • Medium (3%): Moderate salary growth
  • High (5%): Optimistic salary growth

Once you've entered all your information, click the "Calculate" button to generate your pension forecast. You can modify your inputs and recalculate as needed to explore different scenarios.

Annual Pension at Retirement

The top of your results shows your estimated annual pension at retirement age (68). This is the total amount you can expect to receive each year in retirement based on your inputs.

Pension Pots

Below the total, you'll see a breakdown of your pension pots by year:

• Historic Pension Pots: These are based on the values you entered for past years
• Future Pension Pots: These are calculated based on your selected salary bands and other inputs

For each pension pot, you'll see:

• Year: The year this pension pot was created
• Type: Whether it's a historic or future pot
• Band: For future pots, the NHS salary band used for calculation
• Original Value/Contribution: The initial value of the pension pot
• Value at Retirement: The estimated value of this pot at retirement age

Yearly Breakdown

You can click "Show yearly breakdown" for any pension pot to see how its value changes each year until retirement:

• Year: Each year from when the pot was created until retirement
• Age: Your age in that year
• Value: The estimated value of the pot in that year
• Growth Rate (%): The percentage growth applied to that year (1.5% + Treasury Order percentage)

This detailed breakdown helps you understand how your pension grows over time and the impact of the Treasury Order rates.

NHS 2015 Pension Scheme Calculation

The NHS 2015 Pension Scheme is a Career Average Revalued Earnings (CARE) scheme. Here's how your pension is calculated:

For detailed information on NHS pension contribution rates, visit the BMA's NHS pension contribution rates guide.

• Annual Pension Accrual: Each year, you build up a pension pot worth 1/54th (approximately 1.85%) of your pensionable earnings for that year
• Revaluation: Each pension pot is then revalued annually by Treasury Order percentage plus 1.5% until retirement
• Total Pension: Your final pension is the sum of all these revalued pension pots

Example Calculation

Salary Calculation

Your pensionable earnings are calculated based on:

• Base Salary: Determined by your NHS band and years of experience
• Location Allowance: Additional payment based on your work location (Inner London, Outer London, Fringe, or Rest of UK)
• Unsocial Hours Income: Any additional income from working unsocial hours

Future Projections

For future years, the calculator applies your selected pay rise prediction to estimate salary growth, and your selected Treasury Order prediction to estimate pension pot growth.