Accessing Public Sector Pension

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sittinginthesun

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Hi all

I think the answer to this is "it's not possible" but maybe there is something I missed

I'm a civil servant 17 years, early 40s. I'm short a bit for a house deposit. Ive been paying AVCs for nearly a year now too about 400 a month. Is there a way of accessing a portion of the pension (with relevant tax paid) , around €10,000 ? Pre 2013 entrant myself
 
He won't need it for tax free lump sum top up. If he's giving to one on the public sector providers the charges are extortionate.
Perhaps putting spare money into deposit account or investment fund that is more accessible should he need it for something like a deposit might be a better option. However open to correction.
 
JohnFlory said:
Stop paying AVCs . You will likely have close to full service at retirement.
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I’m in a similar situation to the OP and wouldn’t make AVCs at the expense of paying down mortgage.

Perhaps in my 50s if I have spare cash and want to hasten retirement. But it seems unwise to do it too young if you are looking at nearly-full service.
 
sittinginthesun said:
I'm a civil servant 17 years, early 40s. I'm short a bit for a house deposit. Ive been paying AVCs for nearly a year now too about 400 a month. Is there a way of accessing a portion of the pension (with relevant tax paid) , around €10,000 ? Pre 2013 entrant myself
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When I discuss AVCs with people, as well as pointing out the benefits of the large tax reliefs, I always point out the negatives, that they money is tied up until retirement.
 
Ole1999 said:
@JohnFlory why would you advise the poster to stop paying into an AVC ?
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I assume he just doesn't like them very much, and therefore doesn't want them to be able to retire early and/be comfortable in retirement. Not sure what the OP did on them but anyhoo...

Dr Strangelove said:
But it seems unwise to do it too young if you are looking at nearly-full service.
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JohnFlory said:
He won't need it for tax free lump sum top up. I
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OP will have a normal retirement age of 65 and a potential early retirement age of 55. But that potential is entirely dependent on their being able to afford it. Say they're a Principal Officer at top of the scale at retirement at 55 with 30 years service. Their pension will be roughly ((30/40) x 0.5 x 140,000)- 16000= ballpark €37k before cost neutral early retirement. Lump sum around €160

But CNER cuts that in half to about €18k and €90k. Supplementary pension brings it back up, but it's still a steep drop. Few people can take that cut in income. An AVC creates and maintains choices on when and how to retire.

It might be worth their while taking a break for a while to up their savings rate, but dropping AVCs altogether would be vershort sighted.
 
Entirely depends on priorities and choices. Right now it seems the priority for the OP is a house so makes complete sense not to be doing AVCs if you've got a decent guaranteed pension close to full service.

There is no indication the OP wants to retire at 55 and if they don't there is a good chance their full pension would be pretty sufficient unless they lead a very lavish lifestyle. Some people would much rather have a more enjoyable lifestyle, more holidays etc when they are young enough to enjoy it. and work longer until 65 to, then scrimp and save during possibly their best years or with kids, et cetera, to retire earlier.

Others would gladly do the opposite and scrimp and save to get out of work as soon as possible. So there's no one size fits all on this. But if somebody's going to have a reasonable pension at 65 anyway, that will see them able to cover their bills and put food on the table, there's a lot more flexibility here, versus AVCs being more essential.

Worst case scenario, if you were planning to retire early and sudden expenses come up, you can always stay on and work a few years more than originally planned if you don't have AVCs to fall back on
 
Hi all

I am looking at early retirement in my early sixties. I do want to say thank you for the feedback. My only avenue at the moment is affordable housing and I've got full FTB . I'll save more
 
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