Is the Single Scheme pension a good deal?

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XPT481

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Coming up to the end of my second year in a junior public sector job, and interviewing for other positions. I'm sure I want to move on, but I know the vesting period for the single scheme is two years and I should be able to arrange my leaving date to be either side of that if I want. At the moment leaning towards getting a refund of contributions, but conscious that I don't know much about pensions.

Was disappointed to find out, a few months into this job, that there are no employer contributions. Relatives in the UK have told me how all pensions there get an employer contribution by law, and I was surprised to find that isn't the case here.

I can see my retirement account in the HR portal, and the balance matches the deductions from my salary. If that's the size of it, there are no bonuses and I'm only shifting the consumption of my own money with no chances of growing it, sounds like a terrible deal. Taking the same 20% tax hit on this money as on my regular salary and putting it towards a house deposit seems better than waiting for a tiny pension, which I can't choose the investments for and won't be able to take the whole thing as a lump sum when I'm old.

Is there some big advantage to leaving the money in though, that I've completely missed?
 
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To follow on from what @Protocol has said above, in the Single scheme you are not building up a fund. You are building up a guaranteed pension and lump sum at retirement. Each year you get "referable amounts" added to both your pension and lump sum entitlements and when you retire you get the accumulated pension and lump sum. The pension and lump sum are worth significantly more than the contributions you have paid.
 
Dave Vanian said:
To follow on from what @Protocol The pension and lump sum are worth significantly more than the contributions you have paid.
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That may be technically true (i haven't done the maths). But if the OP is relatively young putting the refunded contributions into a private pension fund would ultimately be a lot more valuable after compounding.

Gold plated the Single Scheme unfortunately is not.
 
Bluefin said:
There’s no refunded contributions as per explanations above.
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"What happens if I have paid into the Scheme for less than 24 months?

If you have paid member contributions for less than 24 months and you are not starting in another public service position to which the Single Scheme applies, you may be eligible to apply for a refund of your contributions from your employer. In accordance with current Revenue rules the standard rate of tax (currently 20%) will be deducted from any refund irrespective of what your actual rate of tax is."
 
Where is this information taken from?
 
Bluefin said:
There’s no refunded contributions as per explanations above.
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There is.

If a PS leaves a PS pension scheme before 24 months, the leaving worker can choose to recive a refund of the employee contribtions already made.

There may be some confusion here between ER and EE contribtions. In the PS pensions in Ireland, there aren't any ER contributions, because there is no fund, but staff do make (notional) contributions.
 
Does the additional superannuation contribution, single pension scheme 2, and adjusted single pension scheme contributions made to the SPSPS contribute to the available balance for my AVC PRSA contribution?

Say my NRE is 60,000 so I can contribute 60,000 x 25% or 15,000

Does it really mean I can only contribute 15,000 - (total annual additional superannuation contribution, single pension scheme 2, and adjusted single pension scheme contributions) = available threshold to put towards a private pension?
 
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