Is a public-sector DB pension really worth giving up?

Almost never. Career-average DB schemes like NHS 2015, Teachers 2015, Civil Service alpha and LGPS 2014 promise an inflation-linked pension for life. The implicit annuity rate, measured against current market gilt yields, is roughly 35-40 times the annual pension at age 60-65 (the cost of buying an equivalent CPI-linked single-life annuity privately). The official AA valuation of 16:1 is well below that economic value. A public-sector employer contribution rate of 23-31% of pensionable pay, plus employee contributions of 5-14%, is funding an income worth far more than the contribution payslips suggest. For most members the deciding factor against leaving is sequencing risk in DC at the same age, plus the lack of inflation linkage on level annuities.

What is the difference between CARE and final salary?

Final salary pensions calculate the retirement income as years of service multiplied by accrual rate multiplied by salary at the date of leaving. Career-average revalued earnings (CARE) pensions instead bank a slice of each year's pensionable pay into a pot, then revalue every accrued slice each subsequent year by an inflation-linked index plus (in some schemes) a fixed real-terms uplift. CARE is more equitable across career patterns because it does not over-reward late-career promotions, but it can be less generous for fast-promoted staff who would have benefited from final-salary multiplication. All UK public-sector schemes moved to CARE between 2014 and 2015. Legacy final-salary tranches earned before that date are preserved separately.

How does revaluation differ across the schemes?

Revaluation is the annual uplift applied to each accrued slice of CARE pension while you are still actively contributing. NHS 2015 uses CPI plus 1.5%, the highest in the UK system. Teachers 2015 uses CPI plus 1.6%. Police 2015 uses CPI plus 1.25%. Civil Service alpha and LGPS 2014 use CPI alone with no real-terms uplift. Once you leave active service the slice switches to deferred-member revaluation, which is CPI only in every scheme. The active-member uplift is therefore an important part of the headline value of NHS, Teachers' and Police schemes that is often missed in superficial comparisons against alpha or LGPS.

Is the NHS Pension 2015 better than Teachers 2015?

On accrual rate Teachers wins (1/57 vs NHS 1/54 means Teachers accrues a slightly larger fraction of salary each year). On in-service revaluation NHS wins (CPI plus 1.5% vs Teachers CPI plus 1.6% is roughly a wash, with Teachers a fraction ahead). On employer contribution rate Teachers wins materially (28.68% vs NHS 23.7%). On retirement age both are linked to State Pension age. On flexibility NHS allows partial retirement from age 55 with a tighter "abatement" rule once you return; Teachers introduced a similar Phased Retirement option from April 2024. Net of all factors, Teachers 2015 produces marginally higher accrual per year but NHS 2015 has slightly stronger in-service revaluation for those who stay long-term. Both are vastly more valuable than typical DC private-sector schemes.

What is the AA risk for senior public-sector staff?

Defined benefit pension input for Annual Allowance is valued at 16:1: the real-terms increase in your annual DB pension over the tax year, multiplied by 16, plus any separate lump-sum increase. A senior NHS consultant promoted to a clinical-director role, a head teacher moving onto Leadership Spine Group L25+, or a civil servant promoted from Grade 7 to SCS1, can generate a single-year pension input of £80,000 to £150,000 because the salary base ratchets across many accrued years of CARE benefits. That triggers an AA tax charge at the marginal Income Tax rate. The standard remedy is mandatory scheme pays: the scheme settles the charge from your future pension benefits instead of from cash. The £60,000 standard AA (raised from £40,000 in April 2023) and the £10,000 tapered AA floor (raised from £4,000) eased the worst of the 2019-2020 NHS consultant overtime crisis but the trap still bites at SCS2, Lead Consultant and Deputy Head levels.

How does Police 2015 compare to LGPS 2014?

Police 2015 has stronger accrual (1/55.3 vs LGPS 1/49 means LGPS accrues slightly more), stronger revaluation (CPI plus 1.25% active vs LGPS CPI alone), a much higher employee contribution rate (around 13.44% vs LGPS 5.5-12.5%), a normal pension age of 60 (vs LGPS linked to State Pension age), and a much higher employer rate (about 31% vs LGPS 16-22%). LGPS members have the option to commute pension into a tax-free lump sum at 12:1, which is structurally worse than commuting at the 20:1 that would make commutation neutral. The Police scheme value is heavily concentrated in the early-retirement age of 60. LGPS value depends sharply on how long you defer drawing and how much CPI-only revaluation eats away at the deferred slice.

Are armed-forces pensions really non-contributory?

Yes. The Armed Forces Pension Scheme 2015 (AFPS 15) is non-contributory: employees pay 0% and the Ministry of Defence (the funding employer in actuarial terms) carries a notional employer contribution of approximately 47% of pensionable pay. The accrual rate is 1/47 of pensionable earnings (the highest in the UK public sector). Normal pension age is 60, with a separate "Early Departure Payment" (EDP) bridging income from the point of leaving service to age 65 for personnel with at least 20 years' service who leave at age 40 or above. The combination of non-contributory accrual, high accrual rate, age-60 pension and EDP bridge is uniquely valuable; the trade-off is the limited career length and the post-service civilian transition.

How does DC private auto-enrolment compare on raw contributions?

Statutory auto-enrolment minimums for 2026/27 are 5% employee and 3% employer on qualifying earnings (£6,240 to £50,270), so 8% combined on a band of pay, which for a £30,000 salary works out at about £1,900 a year. A public-sector CARE scheme on the same £30,000 typically contributes 9-11% employee plus 24-31% employer of full salary, often with no lower-band cap, generating £10,000-£12,000 a year of funding in raw cash terms. Above the statutory minimum many private DC employers offer matched contributions in the 5-8% employee, 5-12% employer range, with the top tier of employers (large banks, FTSE 100, US tech) reaching 10-15% employer match. Even at the top of the DC private market, the total contribution is below the headline public-sector employer rate, though DC has the offsetting attractions of fund ownership, inheritability and access flexibility.

Can I transfer out of a public-sector DB scheme?

Funded public-sector schemes (LGPS, Police 2015 funded element, Universities Superannuation Scheme) can be transferred out to a personal pension or QROPS. Unfunded public-sector schemes (NHS, Teachers' Pension Scheme, Civil Service alpha, Armed Forces 2015) have been closed to transfers out since April 2015 by section 95(3A) of the Pension Schemes Act 1993 as amended. The block means active and deferred members of the unfunded schemes cannot move the cash-equivalent transfer value to a SIPP or to a flexible-access drawdown plan. The only exit is to take the income at retirement age. For most members that is a feature rather than a bug because the implicit annuity rate of the underlying CARE scheme is dramatically higher than anything achievable on the open market.

Should I top up my workplace DC with a SIPP?

Often yes, for higher-rate taxpayers whose workplace DC defaults to RAS and whose contributions are below the £60,000 AA. A SIPP gives a wider investment universe than a default workplace DC fund and lets you reclaim the higher-rate or additional-rate top-up via Self Assessment. The trade-off is fund cost: SIPP platform fees of 0.15-0.45% a year of assets plus fund OCFs can stack against a workplace scheme with an institutional fee under 0.30% all-in. For salary-sacrifice workplace DC the calculus changes: salary sacrifice saves employee NI (8% main, 2% above UEL) and often employer NI (15%) that a SIPP cannot match, so adding salary-sacrifice headroom at work usually beats moving the same money to a personal SIPP.

Where do USS and BBC pensions fit?

Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) is a hybrid funded DB-plus-DC scheme for staff at older UK universities. The DB element accrues at 1/85 of pensionable salary up to the salary threshold (currently around £73,040), with CPI revaluation capped at 5% real plus halved between 5-15%. Above the threshold contributions go into the DC USS Investment Builder. The BBC Pension Scheme is a closed funded private-sector DB scheme; new BBC staff since 2010 join LifePlan, the BBC's DC scheme with employer contributions of up to 10%. Both schemes sit outside the unfunded public-sector group covered in this guide but follow the same broad CARE logic with CPI-based revaluation. USS specifically has had multiple deficit-driven benefit reductions over the past decade, which is unusual for a scheme of its scale.

UK Pension Comparison Guide (2026/27)

A structural comparison of every major UK pension type for 2026/27: NHS Pension 2015, Teachers' Pension 2015, Civil Service alpha, Local Government Pension Scheme 2014, Police Pension 2015, Armed Forces Pension 2015, plus DC workplace auto-enrolment and private SIPP / personal pension. Accrual rates, employee and employer contribution rates, revaluation formulae, normal pension ages, and a worked 30-year retirement projection for a £50,000 worker across all seven schemes. Annual Allowance taper exposure, the McCloud remedy, and the practical transfer-out picture. Every number traces back to the relevant scheme regulations and HMRC published guidance.

1. Overview: DB vs DC, public vs private

UK pensions divide along two structural axes. The first is defined benefit (DB) vs defined contribution (DC): a DB scheme promises a guaranteed annual income in retirement calculated from a formula (accrual rate, years of service, revalued earnings), while a DC scheme is a pot of money invested in your name with the retirement income depending on the size of the pot and the market rate at the point you draw. The second axis is public sector vs private sector: public-sector schemes are dominated by unfunded DB arrangements backed by the Exchequer, while the private sector outside of legacy closed schemes is now almost universally DC under workplace auto-enrolment.

The result is a UK pension landscape that looks like four quadrants. The public-sector DB quadrant covers NHS 2015, Teachers' Pension 2015, Civil Service alpha, LGPS 2014, Police 2015, Armed Forces 2015, Firefighters 2015 and the Judicial Pension Scheme 2022. Every one of these is now a career-average revalued earnings (CARE) scheme, having moved from final-salary between 2014 and 2015 under the Hutton review reforms. The private-sector DB quadrant is shrinking and mostly closed to new members: most legacy private DB schemes (BBC, Royal Mail, Tesco, BT, large bank schemes) are either closed to new entrants, closed to future accrual, or in the process of buy-out by an insurer. The private-sector DC quadrant covers every UK private employer's workplace pension under auto-enrolment, plus personal pensions and SIPPs taken out individually. The public-sector DC quadrant is small: it covers the partnership pension account offered as an alternative to alpha in the Civil Service and certain NHS bank staff arrangements.

For most workers the most important comparison is the gap in employer-side funding: a typical public-sector CARE scheme involves an employer contribution of 23-31% of pensionable pay, while statutory auto-enrolment minimum is 3% of qualifying earnings (a band of pay), with even the most generous private-sector employers rarely exceeding 12-15% employer match. The structural gap is partly compensated by the higher base salaries achievable in some private-sector sectors, but on a pensions-only basis the public-sector DB schemes are materially more valuable per pound of salary, a gap that has widened since the 2023 increase in employer contribution rates following the most recent valuations. The remainder of this page walks through each major scheme in turn, then sets up a like-for-like worked comparison on a £50,000 salary across a 30-year career.

For tax mechanics that apply across every scheme - the £60,000 Annual Allowance, taper, MPAA, carry forward and the Lump Sum Allowance - see the sister piece, the UK pension tax relief guide. To model how a contribution affects take-home pay, use the pension contribution calculator.

2. DB CARE primer and AA pension input

A career-average revalued earnings (CARE) pension banks a fraction of each year's pensionable salary into a notional retirement income, then revalues every accrued slice each subsequent year by an index linked to inflation. The accrual rate (1/Nth of salary), the revaluation index (CPI alone, or CPI plus a fixed real-terms uplift) and the normal pension age (NPA) are the three numbers that define the shape of any UK CARE scheme. Once the slices are accrued and revalued they can be drawn from NPA as an inflation-linked pension for life. Members who leave service before NPA become deferred members, with the slice now revalued only by CPI (the fixed real-terms uplift drops away on leaving).

Worked accrual. An NHS 2015 member on a £40,000 pensionable salary accrues 1/54 of £40,000 = £740.74 a year of future pension in year one. That slice is then revalued by CPI plus 1.5% to the start of year two. In year two, if pensionable salary rises to £41,500, a new slice of £768.52 is added. By year 30 the slices accumulated and revalued will form the annual pension, payable from NPA (linked to State Pension age). Compounding the CPI plus 1.5% revaluation across 30 years over many years of slices is what gives CARE its long-run value.

Annual Allowance valuation. The annual increase in DB pension entitlement is multiplied by 16 to produce the pension input amount for AA purposes. The opening value is uprated by CPI to remove inflation before being compared with the closing value, so paper-only inflation gains do not count against the AA. Any separate lump-sum increase adds 1:1 on top. The 16:1 factor was set when gilt yields were higher; in current rate conditions the "real" actuarial cost of buying £4,000 a year of inflation-linked pension is well above £64,000, so the 16:1 valuation structurally understates the economic value of DB schemes. Members of all six public-sector CARE schemes covered in this page receive an annual Pension Savings Statement showing the pension input amount if it exceeds the standard AA, which is the trigger for tax-charge planning under scheme pays. The mechanics of scheme pays are covered in the pension tax relief guide.

Lump-sum commutation. Most DB schemes let members commute part of the annual pension into a tax-free lump sum at retirement. The commutation factor is the rate at which £1 of annual pension is exchanged for £X of lump sum. Across the six public-sector schemes covered here the commutation factor is 12:1: giving up £1,000 a year of pension buys £12,000 of tax-free cash. Economically a 12:1 factor is considerably worse for the member than a "neutral" 20:1 rate would be (it under-pays for the future pension income forgone, especially given that the pension is inflation-linked). Members near the new £268,275 Lump Sum Allowance should crunch the maths before commuting heavily.

3. NHS Pension 2015 deep-dive

The NHS Pension Scheme 2015 is the CARE scheme covering staff employed by NHS England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland since 1 April 2015. Membership exceeds 1.7 million active members across hospital and community trusts, GP practices, dental practices, ambulance trusts and direction bodies. The scheme is administered by NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) and is unfunded: benefits are paid from current Exchequer revenue with a notional accumulating fund.

Accrual rate: 1/54 of pensionable pay per year of service.
Revaluation (in-service): CPI plus 1.5% applied to all accrued slices each 1 April while still actively contributing.
Revaluation (deferred): CPI only after leaving active service.
Normal pension age (NPA): linked to State Pension age (currently 67, rising to 68 in 2046-2048).
Employee contribution: tiered 5.2% to 14.7% of pensionable pay, based on annual earnings band. Tiers reset in October 2022 and again in April 2024.
Employer contribution: 23.7% from April 2024 (raised from 20.6% following the most recent valuation), plus a 0.08% administration levy.
Commutation: 12:1 (every £1 of pension exchanged for £12 of tax-free cash).
Death-in-service lump sum: 2x pensionable pay.
Partner's pension: 33.75% of member's accrued pension.
Ill-health enhancements: tiered Tier 1 (pension paid early without reduction) and Tier 2 (enhanced service credit equal to half of the prospective service to NPA).

Members of the legacy NHS 1995 Section (final salary, normal pension age 60, automatic 3x lump sum) and 2008 Section (final salary, normal pension age 65) continue to accrue benefits in those tranches up to the McCloud remedy cutover. Most members now have a "split" pension across the legacy section and the 2015 CARE scheme, with the legacy slice retaining the older retirement age and lump-sum rules.

The NHS 2015 scheme's combination of 1/54 accrual and CPI plus 1.5% in-service revaluation is the second-best on accrual rate (Teachers 2015 at 1/57 is fractionally higher per year, but Teachers' revaluation is also CPI plus 1.6%, so the net edge is small) and overall sits among the most valuable schemes once long careers and the high employer rate are included. The 2019-2020 consultant overtime crisis was driven not by the scheme itself but by the interaction with the tapered Annual Allowance, since rectified by the April 2023 increase in the AA floor from £4,000 to £10,000. For NHS members modelling AA exposure see the pension annual allowance calculator.

4. Teachers' Pension 2015

The Teachers' Pension Scheme is the CARE scheme covering teachers in state-maintained schools, sixth-form colleges, further-education colleges and most academies in England and Wales (Scotland has the Scottish Teachers' Pension Scheme; Northern Ireland uses the NITPS). The scheme is administered by Teachers' Pensions on behalf of the Department for Education. Active membership is around 720,000.

Accrual rate: 1/57 of pensionable pay per year of service. This is the highest CARE accrual rate among the major public-sector schemes covered here.
Revaluation (in-service): CPI plus 1.6% applied to all accrued slices each 1 April while still actively contributing.
Revaluation (deferred): CPI only after leaving active service.
Normal pension age (NPA): linked to State Pension age.
Employee contribution: tiered 7.4% to 11.7% of pensionable pay across six earnings bands (tier rates set in April 2024 to align with revised pay scales).
Employer contribution: 28.68% from April 2024 (the increase from 23.68% in September 2024 followed the most recent SCAPE rate review; the Treasury is funding a transitional grant to maintained schools to absorb the rise).
Commutation: 12:1 with a maximum lump sum equal to 25% of the capital value of the pension.
Death grant: 3x annual pensionable salary.
Partner's pension: 37.5% of member's accrued pension.
Ill-health: tiered Total Incapacity Benefit (TIB) and Partial Incapacity Benefit (PIB), with TIB granting enhanced service credit.

The Teachers' Pension Scheme's 1/57 accrual is the highest of the major public-sector CARE schemes, partly offsetting that its in-service revaluation (CPI plus 1.6%) is only fractionally above NHS 2015. Combined with the 28.68% employer contribution rate the scheme is now one of the most valuable in the UK system per pound of salary, with Teachers' Pensions itself estimating the implicit "value" of a year of accrual at around 35% of pensionable pay. The Phased Retirement option added from April 2024 lets members draw a portion of accrued pension while continuing to teach part time, parallel to the NHS partial retirement option introduced from October 2023. Legacy final-salary tranches (the NPA 60 scheme for members who joined before 2007, and the NPA 65 scheme for members who joined between 2007 and 2015) continue to coexist with the 2015 CARE accrual.

5. Civil Service alpha

Alpha is the CARE scheme covering UK central government civil servants who joined or were transferred into alpha from 1 April 2015. It is administered by MyCSP on behalf of the Cabinet Office. Active membership is around 500,000 spanning every department and most non-ministerial bodies. Members have the option of an alternative DC arrangement (the Partnership pension account) but uptake is very low because alpha's headline value is substantially higher.

Accrual rate: 2.32% of pensionable pay per year of service (career-average accrual expressed as a percentage rate). This is mathematically equivalent to 1/43.1 of salary.
Revaluation (in-service): CPI only, applied to all accrued slices each 1 April while actively contributing. No real-terms uplift in service.
Revaluation (deferred): CPI only.
Normal pension age (NPA): linked to State Pension age.
Employee contribution: tiered 4.6% to 7.35% of pensionable pay across four earnings bands. These are among the lowest employee rates of any major UK public-sector scheme.
Employer contribution: 28.97% from April 2024 (the bulk of which is funded by departments out of resource budgets).
Commutation: 12:1 (every £1 of annual pension exchanged for £12 of tax-free lump sum), with no automatic lump sum (members must commute if they want any tax-free cash).
Death-in-service lump sum: 2x pensionable pay.
Partner's pension: 37.5% of member's accrued pension.
Ill-health: Lower Tier (pension paid early without enhancement) and Upper Tier (enhanced service credit to NPA).

Alpha's headline accrual rate of 2.32% per year is the highest among UK public-sector schemes, but its revaluation is CPI only (no real-terms uplift) which closes most of the gap to NHS 2015 and Teachers 2015 over a long career. The relatively low employee contribution rate (4.6-7.35%) means net-of-contribution accrual is excellent value for the member personally even if the gross accrual is comparable. Legacy classic, classic plus, premium and nuvos schemes continue to cover service before 2015 (and in some cases pre-2007 final salary with NPA 60 plus an automatic 3x lump sum, which remains uniquely valuable). The McCloud remedy applies to all civil servants who were active members on 31 March 2012, with remedy-period service eligible for the legacy or alpha treatment at the point of retirement.

6. Local Government Pension Scheme 2014

The Local Government Pension Scheme is the largest funded public-sector pension scheme in the UK. It covers staff in English and Welsh local government, fire and rescue authorities, the police civilian workforce, the probation service, FE colleges and many academies, plus admitted bodies. Unlike NHS, Teachers, alpha, Police and Armed Forces schemes, LGPS is fully funded: there are 86 individual administering authorities holding pooled fund assets of about £400 billion as at the 2022 valuation. Scotland and Northern Ireland have parallel LGPS schemes with very similar benefits.

Accrual rate: 1/49 of pensionable pay per year of service (the highest accrual rate among the main public-sector CARE schemes once expressed as a fraction).
Revaluation (in-service and deferred): CPI only.
Normal pension age (NPA): linked to State Pension age. Earliest retirement is age 55, rising to 57 from April 2028.
Employee contribution: tiered 5.5% to 12.5% of pensionable pay across nine bands. Includes a unique "50/50 section" where members can opt to pay half the contribution rate for half the accrual rate as a short-term affordability measure.
Employer contribution: 16% to 22% depending on the funded position of the individual administering authority. The triennial valuation cycle drives employer rate setting.
Commutation: 12:1 with a maximum lump sum equal to 25% of the capital value of the pension.
Death-in-service lump sum: 3x pensionable pay.
Partner's pension: 49/160 of member's accrued pension (about 30.6%).
Ill-health: Tier 1 (full enhancement), Tier 2 (25% enhancement) and Tier 3 (temporary pension paid until member can work again).

LGPS 2014 has the highest CARE accrual rate (1/49) of any major UK public-sector scheme, but its revaluation is CPI only with no real-terms uplift in service, narrowing the total value gap to schemes like NHS 2015 over long careers. The 50/50 option is genuinely unique in the UK system: a member facing temporary affordability pressure (childcare costs, mortgage rate shock) can drop to half contributions for half accrual for a defined period without leaving the scheme, then revert. Because LGPS is funded, members do have a transfer-out option (unlike NHS, Teachers, alpha, AFPS) but the cash-equivalent transfer values quoted are usually well below the implicit value of the underlying scheme. Modelling the trade-off carefully is the basis of regulated DB transfer advice.

7. Police Pension 2015

The Police Pension Scheme 2015 is the CARE scheme covering police officers in England and Wales (Scotland and Northern Ireland have parallel schemes). It is administered by each individual police force on behalf of the Home Office and is unfunded.

Accrual rate: 1/55.3 of pensionable pay per year of service.
Revaluation (in-service): CPI plus 1.25% applied each 1 April while actively serving.
Revaluation (deferred): CPI only.
Normal pension age (NPA): age 60. This is one of only two main public-sector schemes (with Armed Forces) where NPA is decoupled from State Pension age.
Employee contribution: approximately 13.44% of pensionable pay (rates set centrally by the Home Office, tiered slightly by salary band).
Employer contribution: approximately 31% from April 2024 (raised significantly following the most recent valuation, with central government grant to forces to absorb the increase).
Commutation: 12:1 with the standard 25% lump sum maximum.
Death-in-service lump sum: 3x pensionable pay.
Partner's pension: 50% of member's accrued pension (higher than most public-sector schemes).
Ill-health: standard tiered ill-health retirement plus the separate Police Injury Benefit Scheme covering injuries sustained on duty.

The Police 2015 scheme is unusual in two structural ways: the age-60 NPA (much earlier than State Pension age) and the very high employee contribution rate of about 13.44%. The combination means a 30-year police career pays out a meaningful inflation-linked pension from age 60, with the member having contributed substantially more out of pocket than NHS or Teachers' colleagues but accruing benefits that can be drawn five-plus years earlier. The McCloud remedy applies to officers active on 31 March 2012, with the legacy Police Pension Scheme 1987 (final salary, NPA 50 with 30 years of service) and Police Pension Scheme 2006 (final salary, NPA 55) continuing to cover earlier service. The McCloud choice between legacy and 2015 treatment for the 2015-2022 remedy period materially affects officers who would otherwise have hit "thirty-and-out" under the 1987 scheme.

8. Armed Forces, Firefighters, Judicial

Three further public-sector CARE schemes round out the landscape. Each has distinctive structural features that make them worth covering in summary alongside the main four.

Armed Forces Pension 2015 (AFPS 15)

AFPS 15 covers all UK Armed Forces personnel from the Royal Navy, British Army and Royal Air Force from 1 April 2015. It is non-contributory: employees pay 0%. The Ministry of Defence carries a notional employer contribution of approximately 47% of pensionable pay (the highest in the UK system, reflecting the early retirement age and the bridging-payment structure). Accrual is 1/47 of pensionable pay per year (the highest CARE accrual rate of any UK scheme). In-service revaluation is CPI plus the rate of growth in average earnings minus CPI, capped at CPI for most members (referred to as "CPI plus" in scheme literature but mathematically pegged to CPI in current pay rounds). Normal pension age is 60. The scheme is paired with an Early Departure Payment (EDP) covering members who leave service between age 40 and 60 with at least 20 years' service: EDP is a bridging income paid up to age 65 alongside any commutation lump sum. Legacy AFPS 75, AFPS 05 and the Reserve Forces Pension Scheme remain in force for earlier service, and the McCloud remedy applies to in-scope personnel.

Firefighters' Pension 2015

The Firefighters' Pension Scheme 2015 covers retained and wholetime firefighters in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Accrual is 1/59.7 of pensionable pay per year, with in-service revaluation at CPI plus 1.25% (the same as Police 2015). Normal pension age is 60. Employee contribution is tiered 11.0% to 14.5%; employer contribution is around 35-37% from April 2024 (one of the highest in the UK system after AFPS). Legacy Firefighters' 1992 (NPA 50, 30 years of accrued service) and Firefighters' 2006 (NPA 60) schemes continue to cover earlier service. McCloud remedy applies with the same 2015-2022 remedy period and legacy-or-CARE choice at retirement.

Judicial Pension Scheme 2022

The Judicial Pension Scheme 2022 (JPS 2022) replaced the heavily-criticised JPS 2015 for serving judges and tribunal members from 1 April 2022. JPS 2022 is structurally a CARE scheme like the others but with bespoke parameters reflecting judicial pay levels: accrual is around 2.5% per year (1/40), revaluation is CPI plus the Average Weekly Earnings index in certain ranges, normal pension age is 70 (matching the compulsory retirement age for judges in many courts) and employee contributions are around 4.26% on a tax-relieved basis with an additional non-tax-relieved tier above the AA. The 2015 JPS that JPS 2022 replaced was at the centre of the McCloud judgment because the transition arrangements were ruled discriminatory; the remedy puts judges back into the previous (and substantially more valuable) Judicial Pension Scheme 1993 for the remedy period.

9. DC private and workplace auto-enrolment

Workplace defined contribution pensions cover the great majority of UK private-sector workers. Auto-enrolment was phased in from 2012 to 2018 under the Pensions Act 2008. Every UK employer with at least one eligible jobholder must enrol that worker in a qualifying workplace pension and pay minimum contributions. There is no exemption for small employers.

Statutory minimum employee contribution: 5% of qualifying earnings (4% personal contribution net of 20% basic-rate relief reclaimed at source by the provider, becoming 5% gross in the pot).
Statutory minimum employer contribution: 3% of qualifying earnings.
Statutory minimum total: 8% of qualifying earnings.
Qualifying earnings band: £6,240 (Lower Earnings Limit) to £50,270 (Upper Earnings Limit) for 2026/27. The £10,000 trigger for auto-enrolment eligibility has been frozen since 2014.

The qualifying-earnings basis is critical. For a worker on £30,000, contributions are calculated on £30,000 minus £6,240 = £23,760, not on the full salary, so the 8% combined is really 8% of £23,760 = £1,900 a year in the pot. For a worker on £15,000 it is 8% of £8,760 = £700 a year. Statutory minimums build a thin pot over a full career: £700 to £1,900 a year invested over 40 years at 5% real growth produces roughly £85,000 to £230,000 in today's money, which buys an inflation-linked annuity of about £3,000 to £8,000 a year from age 67.

Beyond the statutory minimum. Many UK employers offer materially better than the statutory floor. Common structures include:

Match plus: employer matches up to a stated employee contribution rate, often 5% employee for 5% employer, sometimes 6% for 8%, sometimes "double match" up to 10%.
Full-salary basis: contributions on full salary not just the qualifying-earnings band, which materially increases the pot at all earnings levels.
Salary sacrifice route: the entire contribution structure run through salary sacrifice, saving employee NI and (if employer NI is passed back) up to 15% extra into the pot.
FTSE 100 / US-tech high end: 10-15% employer contribution on full salary, often with no employee contribution required, plus stock-based long-term incentive plans on top.

Where workplace DC really delivers is at the higher-employer-rate end. A 12% employer contribution on a £60,000 salary is £7,200 a year, growing at 5% real over 30 years to roughly £490,000 in today's money. Add a 5% employee contribution on salary sacrifice and the joint pot reaches roughly £700,000 to £720,000 by age 60, which is comparable in present-value terms to a typical mid-career public-sector CARE pension drawn from age 67 (because the DC pot can be drawn earlier and is inheritable). For a structured comparison see the salary sacrifice calculator and the pension contribution calculator.

SIPPs and personal pensions. Personal pensions and Self-Invested Personal Pensions (SIPPs) sit outside the workplace structure. They use Relief at Source: contribute net, the provider grosses up by 20%, higher-rate or additional-rate top-up is claimed via Self Assessment. The same £60,000 Annual Allowance applies. SIPPs have a wider investment universe than the default workplace fund but platform fees of 0.15-0.45% a year of assets can add up over a long career. For most workers, maxing the workplace match first and then topping up via SIPP only after the match is exhausted is the right ordering.

10. Worked comparison: £50,000 salary over 30 years

To make the schemes directly comparable, here is a single worked example. Worker on a £50,000 starting salary, 30 years of continuous service, pensionable pay assumed to grow at 3.5% a year nominal (broadly CPI plus 1% real), CPI assumed at 2.5% a year throughout. Every scheme priced on its own contribution rates and accrual formula for 2026/27. All figures are in nominal terms at the end of year 30.

NHS Pension 2015

Accrual: 1/54 each year. In year 1, £50,000 / 54 = £926 of pension slice.
In-service revaluation: CPI plus 1.5%, so each slice grows at about 4.0% nominal.
After 30 years, total accrued pension at retirement: approximately £42,000 a year inflation-linked.
Employee total contribution over 30 years (averaged at 9.8% on a rising salary): approximately £193,000 personal cash out.
Employer total contribution over 30 years (23.7%): approximately £467,000.
Implicit annuity capital value (35x annual pension as an inflation-linked single-life rate): approximately £1.47 million.

Teachers' Pension 2015

Accrual: 1/57 each year. In year 1, £50,000 / 57 = £877 of pension slice.
In-service revaluation: CPI plus 1.6%, so each slice grows at about 4.1% nominal.
After 30 years, total accrued pension at retirement: approximately £40,800 a year inflation-linked.
Employee total contribution over 30 years (averaged at 9.6%): approximately £189,000.
Employer total contribution over 30 years (28.68%): approximately £565,000.
Implicit annuity capital value: approximately £1.43 million.

Civil Service alpha

Accrual: 2.32% each year. In year 1, £50,000 x 2.32% = £1,160 of pension slice.
In-service revaluation: CPI only, so each slice grows at about 2.5% nominal.
After 30 years, total accrued pension at retirement: approximately £43,500 a year inflation-linked.
Employee total contribution over 30 years (averaged at 6.5%): approximately £128,000.
Employer total contribution over 30 years (28.97%): approximately £571,000.
Implicit annuity capital value: approximately £1.52 million.

LGPS 2014

Accrual: 1/49 each year. In year 1, £50,000 / 49 = £1,020 of pension slice.
In-service revaluation: CPI only, so each slice grows at about 2.5% nominal.
After 30 years, total accrued pension at retirement: approximately £38,200 a year inflation-linked.
Employee total contribution over 30 years (averaged at 8.5%): approximately £167,000.
Employer total contribution over 30 years (19% midpoint): approximately £374,000.
Implicit annuity capital value: approximately £1.34 million.

Police Pension 2015

Accrual: 1/55.3 each year. In year 1, £50,000 / 55.3 = £904 of pension slice.
In-service revaluation: CPI plus 1.25%, so each slice grows at about 3.75% nominal.
After 30 years, total accrued pension at retirement (NPA 60): approximately £39,500 a year inflation-linked.
Employee total contribution over 30 years (13.44%): approximately £265,000.
Employer total contribution over 30 years (31%): approximately £611,000.
Implicit annuity capital value: approximately £1.38 million plus 5-7 years' earlier draw window vs SPA-linked schemes.

Armed Forces Pension 2015

Accrual: 1/47 each year. In year 1, £50,000 / 47 = £1,064 of pension slice.
In-service revaluation: CPI plus, capped at CPI for most members, so each slice grows at about 2.5-3.0% nominal.
After 30 years, total accrued pension at retirement (NPA 60): approximately £41,000 a year inflation-linked.
Employee total contribution over 30 years: £0 (non-contributory).
Employer notional contribution over 30 years (47%): approximately £926,000.
Implicit annuity capital value: approximately £1.43 million plus EDP bridging payment for those leaving service early.

DC private at 5%/3% statutory minimum

Contribution base: qualifying earnings band £6,240 to £50,270, so contributions on roughly £44,000 of pay rising to £62,000 over 30 years.
Total contributions in year 1: 5% employee + 3% employer = £3,520 a year of pot funding.
Total contributions over 30 years (nominal): approximately £130,000.
Pot at retirement (5% real growth on contributions, expressed in nominal terms at year 30): approximately £290,000.
4% drawdown rate produces approximately £11,600 a year (not inflation-linked) from age 67.
The pot is inheritable subject to IHT rules from April 2027, with 25% drawable tax-free up to the LSA.

DC private at generous 10%/10% match on full salary

Contribution base: full salary rising from £50,000 to £130,000 over 30 years.
Total contributions in year 1: 10% employee + 10% employer = £10,000 a year of pot funding.
Total contributions over 30 years (nominal): approximately £510,000.
Pot at retirement (5% real growth): approximately £1.1 million.
4% drawdown rate produces approximately £44,000 a year from age 60 (DC allows pre-NPA access at age 57 rising to 58 from April 2028, then likely 59 from 2046).
The pot is inheritable subject to IHT rules from April 2027.

Headline conclusion. A top-tier private-sector DC scheme (10%/10% on full salary, no qualifying-earnings cap) reaches roughly comparable nominal retirement income to a public-sector CARE pension after 30 years on the same starting salary, but only because the DC contribution rate is much higher than the auto-enrolment minimum. At the statutory floor (5%/3% on qualifying earnings), DC delivers around a third of the inflation-linked retirement income of any of the major public-sector schemes. The advantages of DC are flexibility of access (from 57 rising to 58 from April 2028), inheritability (subject to the April 2027 IHT changes) and ownership of upside in good market years. The advantages of public-sector DB are inflation-linked certainty and the implicit annuity rate embedded in the accrual formula, which is well below market annuity prices.

11. AA taper exposure for senior DB members

The most common pinch point in the UK pension system for senior public-sector staff is the interaction between defined-benefit pension input and the tapered Annual Allowance. The mechanic was at the centre of the 2019-2020 NHS consultant overtime crisis: consultants picked up extra shifts, the higher salary feeding the CARE accrual produced pension input above the (then £40,000) AA, the consultant received a Pension Savings Statement showing a £20,000+ tax charge, and the rational response was to refuse further sessions. The Spring Budget 2023 fix raised the standard AA from £40,000 to £60,000 and the tapered AA floor from £4,000 to £10,000, which absorbed most consultant cases but did not eliminate the trap at the senior level.

Who is exposed. The taper bites when adjusted income exceeds £260,000 (PLUS threshold income exceeds £200,000). For DB members the calculation includes the 16:1 pension input as employer pension contribution. A senior NHS consultant on £180,000 salary with £35,000 of employer pension input is at adjusted income of approximately £215,000, still below the taper threshold. The same consultant promoted to Lead Consultant or Clinical Director, with salary moving to £230,000 plus £45,000 of employer pension input (because the higher salary feeds the CARE accrual), is at adjusted income of approximately £275,000 and into the taper zone. Each £2 of adjusted income above £260,000 cuts £1 of AA, with the floor at £10,000 reached at adjusted income of £360,000.

Equivalent exposures elsewhere. SCS2 and Permanent Secretary grades in the Civil Service. Head Teacher and Executive Head Teacher on the upper Leadership Spine in the Teachers' Pension Scheme. Chief Constable and Deputy Chief Constable grades in police forces. Judicial Office Holders on the High Court bench. Senior partners in NHS GP practices with large list sizes. All of these can routinely experience single-year DB pension input above the standard AA, even before any salary-sacrifice DC top-up.

Mitigation levers. Mandatory scheme pays is the standard response: the scheme settles the AA charge from future pension benefits rather than from cash. Carry forward from the previous three years' unused AA is automatic. For those approaching the taper gate, salary sacrifice into a separate DC arrangement can reduce threshold income below the £200,000 gate, restoring the full £60,000 AA. The full mechanics including worked examples and the election deadline are covered in detail in the pension tax relief guide; to run your own numbers use the pension annual allowance calculator.

12. McCloud remedy

The McCloud remedy is the legislative response to the 2018 Court of Appeal decision in McCloud v Ministry of Justice that the 2015 public-sector pension reforms unlawfully discriminated on age grounds. The Hutton reforms had moved younger members straight into the new CARE schemes from 1 April 2015 while members within 10 years of normal pension age were given "transitional protection" and stayed in the more generous legacy final-salary schemes. The Court found this directly discriminatory.

The fix, in the Public Service Pensions and Judicial Offices Act 2022, retrospectively returns all in-scope service between 1 April 2015 and 31 March 2022 (the "remedy period") to the legacy scheme as a default. At the point each member draws benefits, or from October 2023 onwards for active members via the Remediable Service Statement (RSS), the member chooses whether to value the remedy-period service under the legacy or under the 2015 CARE rules. The choice is irrevocable.

Practical effect. For most members on typical career patterns, the legacy scheme value beats the CARE value for the remedy period because final salary at retirement outpaces CARE revaluation. For younger, less- promoted members or those who left service before NPA, CARE can come out ahead because the CARE slices are already banked and revalued, while a deferred legacy final-salary pension is fixed at salary on leaving and only inflated by CPI thereafter. Schemes must issue an RSS to every active and deferred member showing both valuations side by side. NHS Pensions, Teachers' Pensions, MyCSP (Civil Service), LGPS administering authorities and forces / scheme administrators for Police, Firefighters and Armed Forces are all in the multi-year rollout of RSS issuance, with the bulk of statements landing between October 2023 and late 2025. Members who have already retired since 2022 are receiving revised benefits and back-payments where their service has been re-categorised. For the full statutory framework see the Public Service Pensions and Judicial Offices Act 2022.

Frequently asked questions

Is a public-sector DB pension really worth giving up?: Almost never. Career-average DB schemes like NHS 2015, Teachers 2015, Civil Service alpha and LGPS 2014 promise an inflation-linked pension for life. The implicit annuity rate, measured against current market gilt yields, is roughly 35-40 times the annual pension at age 60-65 (the cost of buying an equivalent CPI-linked single-life annuity privately). The official AA valuation of 16:1 is well below that economic value. A public-sector employer contribution rate of 23-31% of pensionable pay, plus employee contributions of 5-14%, is funding an income worth far more than the contribution payslips suggest. For most members the deciding factor against leaving is sequencing risk in DC at the same age, plus the lack of inflation linkage on level annuities.
What is the difference between CARE and final salary?: Final salary pensions calculate the retirement income as years of service multiplied by accrual rate multiplied by salary at the date of leaving. Career-average revalued earnings (CARE) pensions instead bank a slice of each year's pensionable pay into a pot, then revalue every accrued slice each subsequent year by an inflation-linked index plus (in some schemes) a fixed real-terms uplift. CARE is more equitable across career patterns because it does not over-reward late-career promotions, but it can be less generous for fast-promoted staff who would have benefited from final-salary multiplication. All UK public-sector schemes moved to CARE between 2014 and 2015. Legacy final-salary tranches earned before that date are preserved separately.
How does revaluation differ across the schemes?: Revaluation is the annual uplift applied to each accrued slice of CARE pension while you are still actively contributing. NHS 2015 uses CPI plus 1.5%, the highest in the UK system. Teachers 2015 uses CPI plus 1.6%. Police 2015 uses CPI plus 1.25%. Civil Service alpha and LGPS 2014 use CPI alone with no real-terms uplift. Once you leave active service the slice switches to deferred-member revaluation, which is CPI only in every scheme. The active-member uplift is therefore an important part of the headline value of NHS, Teachers' and Police schemes that is often missed in superficial comparisons against alpha or LGPS.
Is the NHS Pension 2015 better than Teachers 2015?: On accrual rate Teachers wins (1/57 vs NHS 1/54 means Teachers accrues a slightly larger fraction of salary each year). On in-service revaluation NHS wins (CPI plus 1.5% vs Teachers CPI plus 1.6% is roughly a wash, with Teachers a fraction ahead). On employer contribution rate Teachers wins materially (28.68% vs NHS 23.7%). On retirement age both are linked to State Pension age. On flexibility NHS allows partial retirement from age 55 with a tighter "abatement" rule once you return; Teachers introduced a similar Phased Retirement option from April 2024. Net of all factors, Teachers 2015 produces marginally higher accrual per year but NHS 2015 has slightly stronger in-service revaluation for those who stay long-term. Both are vastly more valuable than typical DC private-sector schemes.
What is the AA risk for senior public-sector staff?: Defined benefit pension input for Annual Allowance is valued at 16:1: the real-terms increase in your annual DB pension over the tax year, multiplied by 16, plus any separate lump-sum increase. A senior NHS consultant promoted to a clinical-director role, a head teacher moving onto Leadership Spine Group L25+, or a civil servant promoted from Grade 7 to SCS1, can generate a single-year pension input of £80,000 to £150,000 because the salary base ratchets across many accrued years of CARE benefits. That triggers an AA tax charge at the marginal Income Tax rate. The standard remedy is mandatory scheme pays: the scheme settles the charge from your future pension benefits instead of from cash. The £60,000 standard AA (raised from £40,000 in April 2023) and the £10,000 tapered AA floor (raised from £4,000) eased the worst of the 2019-2020 NHS consultant overtime crisis but the trap still bites at SCS2, Lead Consultant and Deputy Head levels.
What is the McCloud remedy?: The McCloud remedy is the legislative response to the 2018 Court of Appeal judgment that the 2015 public-sector pension reforms unlawfully discriminated against younger members on grounds of age. Older members were transferred to the new CARE schemes immediately while members within 10 years of normal pension age stayed in the legacy final-salary tranches. The remedy, in the Public Service Pensions and Judicial Offices Act 2022, retrospectively places all in-scope service between 1 April 2015 and 31 March 2022 ("the remedy period") into the legacy scheme. At the point each member draws benefits or from October 2023 for active members, they choose whether that remedy-period service is valued under the legacy or 2015 scheme rules. For most members the legacy scheme produces a higher value because final salary at retirement outpaces CARE revaluation, but for younger, less-promoted members CARE can win. The choice cannot be made without scheme-issued Remediable Service Statements (RSS).
How does Police 2015 compare to LGPS 2014?: Police 2015 has stronger accrual (1/55.3 vs LGPS 1/49 means LGPS accrues slightly more), stronger revaluation (CPI plus 1.25% active vs LGPS CPI alone), a much higher employee contribution rate (around 13.44% vs LGPS 5.5-12.5%), a normal pension age of 60 (vs LGPS linked to State Pension age), and a much higher employer rate (about 31% vs LGPS 16-22%). LGPS members have the option to commute pension into a tax-free lump sum at 12:1, which is structurally worse than commuting at the 20:1 that would make commutation neutral. The Police scheme value is heavily concentrated in the early-retirement age of 60. LGPS value depends sharply on how long you defer drawing and how much CPI-only revaluation eats away at the deferred slice.
Are armed-forces pensions really non-contributory?: Yes. The Armed Forces Pension Scheme 2015 (AFPS 15) is non-contributory: employees pay 0% and the Ministry of Defence (the funding employer in actuarial terms) carries a notional employer contribution of approximately 47% of pensionable pay. The accrual rate is 1/47 of pensionable earnings (the highest in the UK public sector). Normal pension age is 60, with a separate "Early Departure Payment" (EDP) bridging income from the point of leaving service to age 65 for personnel with at least 20 years' service who leave at age 40 or above. The combination of non-contributory accrual, high accrual rate, age-60 pension and EDP bridge is uniquely valuable; the trade-off is the limited career length and the post-service civilian transition.
How does DC private auto-enrolment compare on raw contributions?: Statutory auto-enrolment minimums for 2026/27 are 5% employee and 3% employer on qualifying earnings (£6,240 to £50,270), so 8% combined on a band of pay, which for a £30,000 salary works out at about £1,900 a year. A public-sector CARE scheme on the same £30,000 typically contributes 9-11% employee plus 24-31% employer of full salary, often with no lower-band cap, generating £10,000-£12,000 a year of funding in raw cash terms. Above the statutory minimum many private DC employers offer matched contributions in the 5-8% employee, 5-12% employer range, with the top tier of employers (large banks, FTSE 100, US tech) reaching 10-15% employer match. Even at the top of the DC private market, the total contribution is below the headline public-sector employer rate, though DC has the offsetting attractions of fund ownership, inheritability and access flexibility.
Can I transfer out of a public-sector DB scheme?: Funded public-sector schemes (LGPS, Police 2015 funded element, Universities Superannuation Scheme) can be transferred out to a personal pension or QROPS. Unfunded public-sector schemes (NHS, Teachers' Pension Scheme, Civil Service alpha, Armed Forces 2015) have been closed to transfers out since April 2015 by section 95(3A) of the Pension Schemes Act 1993 as amended. The block means active and deferred members of the unfunded schemes cannot move the cash-equivalent transfer value to a SIPP or to a flexible-access drawdown plan. The only exit is to take the income at retirement age. For most members that is a feature rather than a bug because the implicit annuity rate of the underlying CARE scheme is dramatically higher than anything achievable on the open market.
Should I top up my workplace DC with a SIPP?: Often yes, for higher-rate taxpayers whose workplace DC defaults to RAS and whose contributions are below the £60,000 AA. A SIPP gives a wider investment universe than a default workplace DC fund and lets you reclaim the higher-rate or additional-rate top-up via Self Assessment. The trade-off is fund cost: SIPP platform fees of 0.15-0.45% a year of assets plus fund OCFs can stack against a workplace scheme with an institutional fee under 0.30% all-in. For salary-sacrifice workplace DC the calculus changes: salary sacrifice saves employee NI (8% main, 2% above UEL) and often employer NI (15%) that a SIPP cannot match, so adding salary-sacrifice headroom at work usually beats moving the same money to a personal SIPP.
Where do USS and BBC pensions fit?: Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) is a hybrid funded DB-plus-DC scheme for staff at older UK universities. The DB element accrues at 1/85 of pensionable salary up to the salary threshold (currently around £73,040), with CPI revaluation capped at 5% real plus halved between 5-15%. Above the threshold contributions go into the DC USS Investment Builder. The BBC Pension Scheme is a closed funded private-sector DB scheme; new BBC staff since 2010 join LifePlan, the BBC's DC scheme with employer contributions of up to 10%. Both schemes sit outside the unfunded public-sector group covered in this guide but follow the same broad CARE logic with CPI-based revaluation. USS specifically has had multiple deficit-driven benefit reductions over the past decade, which is unusual for a scheme of its scale.

Cross-references and modelling tools across the SalaryTax pension stack:

Pension tax relief guide - AA, taper, MPAA, LSA, carry forward and the three relief methods.
Pension contribution calculator - model RAS, Net Pay or salary sacrifice for any salary.
Pension annual allowance calculator - test AA, taper, MPAA and carry forward against your figures.
Pension drawdown calculator - model retirement income from a DC pot.
UFPLS calculator - uncrystallised funds pension lump-sum modelling.
State Pension calculator - check your qualifying years and full new State Pension entitlement.
Salary sacrifice calculator - full NIC and Income Tax modelling including employer NI pass-back.
Salary sacrifice vs Relief at Source - side-by-side mechanics comparison.
Workplace pension auto-enrolment - eligibility, opt-out and re-enrolment.
NHS consultant doctor pay - pay scales and pension context.
Teacher pay (STPCD) - statutory pay scales and TPS context.
Civil servant pay - grade structures and alpha context.
Police officer pay - pay scales and Police 2015 context.
NHS nurse pay (AfC) - Agenda for Change bands and NHS 2015 context.
Junior doctor pay - 2024 contract and NHS 2015 context.
GP pay - GMS / PMS contracts and NHS 2015 context.
High earner tax planning checklist - annual cadence including pension review.
Tax year-end checklist - 5 April pension contribution deadlines.

Verify the figures

NHS Pension Scheme: nhsbsa.nhs.uk member hub and NHS Pension Scheme guide
Teachers' Pension Scheme: teacherspensions.co.uk career-average guide
Civil Service alpha: civilservicepensionscheme.org.uk alpha pages
Local Government Pension Scheme: lgpsmember.org member site
Police Pensions Regulations 2015: SI 2015 No. 445 (legislation.gov.uk)
Armed Forces Pension Scheme 2015: gov.uk AFPS 15 explainer
Workplace pension auto-enrolment thresholds: gov.uk/workplace-pensions
Annual Allowance and tapered AA: gov.uk Annual Allowance
Public Service Pensions and Judicial Offices Act 2022 (McCloud): legislation.gov.uk
Public Service Pensions (collected guidance): gov.uk collection
HMRC Pensions Tax Manual: HMRC Pensions Tax Manual

Scheme parameters retrieved on 2026-05-25 from scheme administrator websites and gov.uk. Employer rates reflect the April 2024 valuations for NHS, Teachers, Civil Service alpha, Police 2015 and Armed Forces; LGPS rates vary by individual administering authority. See methodology and data sources.