HSE pension scheme transfer to Civil Service

machalla

Does anyone have any experience moving from the HSE (or equivalent public sector health organisation) to the civil service and any pension implications?

This is for a pre 2013 pension. Transferring to a role in one of the government departments.

No one seems to be able to tell me if you would be treated as a new entrant and put on the new 2013 onwards pension scheme rather than maintained on the older scheme. There is no equivalent pension scheme in the civil service to the HSE scheme I'm told.

machalla

machalla wrote: »

Does anyone have any experience moving from the HSE (or equivalent public sector health organisation) to the civil service and any pension implications?

This is for a pre 2013 pension. Transferring to a role in one of the government departments.

No one seems to be able to tell me if you would be treated as a new entrant and put on the new 2013 onwards pension scheme rather than maintained on the older scheme. There is no equivalent pension scheme in the civil service to the HSE scheme I'm told.

told by whom?

the HSE is a member of the public service transfer network, which would ordinarily govern transfer with reasonably equivalent benefits

to be sure, and presuming your new dept is under their aegis, you should contact the HRSSC team dealing with pensions and ask whether youd be joining with equivalent terms and conditions

machalla

Thanks for your advice on this snoopsheep

This was from the HR dept of the new department.

The confusions seems to be coming from a different pension in the health sector prior to the HSE role.

https://www.hse.ie/eng/staff/benefitsservices/pension-management/single-scheme/which-pension-scheme-flow-chart.pdf

That was directly transferrable so I can only assume the same will apply to the new department.

the HR dept would tend to know what they are talking about, but not always.

id ask them to set out in writing the reasons your pre-2013 scheme membership wasnt valid for transfer, and id get in touch with the HRSSC.

i believe they have a dedicated team within their pensions section that specialise in service. be no harm to get as much detail as possible and ensure that you got a mail/call/case to their attention.

minimum you'll want is the name of your own scheme from HSE, the dates you became a member yourself, date of your transfer (if its happened already) and confirmation that you havent had a break in service.

for the purposes of querying it in principle just mail them the above details and ask them if theres any reason youd be treated as a single scheme new entrant rather than keeping your benefits under the transfer network.

fingers crossed for you, its an arcane and complex sphere so hopefully your HR contact just has some wires crossed as opposed to knowing some valid obscure blocking clause.

machalla

Many thanks for all youjr helpful advice on this.

I haven't moved yet but I'm being put under pressure to do so by the new department as they have some urgency around the role.

Their own recruitment process has slowed any move down by several months though so I don't unjustified in trying to sort out the details before I move to them. Also they wouldn't discuss the contract until the very end.

machalla

machalla wrote: »

Many thanks for all youjr helpful advice on this.

I haven't moved yet but I'm being put under pressure to do so by the new department as they have some urgency around the role.

Their own recruitment process has slowed any move down by several months though so I don't unjustified in trying to sort out the details before I move to them. Also they wouldn't discuss the contract until the very end.

best get to it so, try to get the above together and get a call in to the pensions team, theyll be administering and worst case scenario they confirm what the incoming HR say.

have known a fair few instances where theyd know the policy etc a bit better (the volume of cases there alone means they get good exposure to the full gamut of queries) so maybe theyll be able to tell you straight out what the story is.

if you let them know on a call thats theres a time element it might be better than raising a case.....

adam88

An I right in thinking your better off if you can stay in the pre 2013 scheme

machalla

adam88 wrote: »

An I right in thinking your better off if you can stay in the pre 2013 scheme

There is an interesting discussion about aspects of that here

Civil Service Pension - what am I missing?

The main benefit being that your final salary will determine your pension as opposed to it being calculated over the course of your career in the post 2013 pension scheme. Assuming you can achieve a senior grade before you retire.

I'm sure others on here can explain it much more effectively.

thats it

theres other aspects but thats the main one

pre 2013 schemes also marked against the future increases of the grade they retire from, not cpi