How do PS employers calculate service for pension?

[redstar]

How does a Public Sector employer calculate a persons pension based on service years ?

Do they get the PRSI contribution history from DSP or just use their own records, especially where someone has moved between PS organisations?

For Class D, do they use the total D contributions to figure out the # of years ? For example, 1432 Class D stamps = 27.3 years

My wife has 1432 Class D 'stamps', according to DSP, but her employer has her pensionable service as 10 years to date. 27.3 yrs Vs 10 - somethings not right.

 

[S class]

In my wife's case HSE calculated her pension based on the equivalent to full time service years.

Her work pattern was 4 hours per week for 18 years.

The HSE calculation was based on her working full time for approximately 2 years.

This calculation was accurate for working out her PS pension.

However these calculation figures were then supplied to her AVC provider and resulted in a totally incorrect calculation of her entitlement to extra tax free lump sum.

In the case of your wife's D stamps. 1 D stamp could for instance relate to 1 days work per week. 52 D stamps could then represent 52 days of service.

 

[gipimann]

Each PS organisation will (or should!) keep service records. If a person moves from one organisation to another,their service record should be transferred too.

PRSI records aren't used to determine service for PS pension - as S Class mentioned, a part time worker could have a "full time" PRSI record.

 

[POC]

It's worked out based on the number of hours worked compared to working full time. So if you're job sharing or 0.5 of a WTE (Whole Time Equivalent) you'll get half a year for pension purposes for each year of work.