FAQs

If you are a member of a Protected Section of the Unified Scheme and you change jobs, then your continued membership of your Protected Section could be affected.

Only those members who were in a job on 31 March 2012 will have been given the option to join Protected Section. All new joiners or members starting new posts (in addition to the post they were in at 31 March 2012) will only be permitted to be in the Standard Section.

In the Unified Scheme, each employment has a separate pensionable membership. For example if you have 2 part-time jobs which are both pensionable (i.e. you are paying a contribution to the scheme from each salary) then you will have 2 memberships in the Unified Scheme.

If you want to maintain future pension growth in the Protected Section when moving jobs, you need to understand how you may lose it.

To maintain membership of the Protected Section, the general principle is that when you change your job your employment service must be continuous – i.e. your employment must switch from one job to the other job with a break of less than 28 days. If the break is more than 28 days, then you will lose membership of the Protected section and will only be permitted to join Standard.

As mentioned above any new post, that you take up to run concurrently to your existing post will be pensionable under Standard only.

More information and examples can be found on our Changing Jobs Fact Sheet. 

 Things you should know:

• The ‘type’ of employment a member was in as at 1 April 2012 i.e. in a Full- Time Post, Part-Time or a Pensionable Bank or Relief post as at 1 April 2012 is irrelevant for the purposes of retaining Protected Status.  
• If a member is Part-time as at 1 April 2012 and subsequently increases or decreases their contracted hours by either agreement with the employer or by changing posts after 1 April 2012, this does not affect their retention of Protected Status membership. 

Transferring your Unified Scheme benefits to another pension scheme  

You can ask for a transfer payment to be made to your new public sector employer’s pension scheme. The transfer payment will be equal to the cash value of your benefits. You must apply within 12 months of the date you left the scheme and before we start paying your pension benefits.

For a transfer to be carried out you must be a contributing member of your new employer’s scheme and it must be a Public Service Pension Scheme, either on the Isle of Man or the United Kingdom.  In certain cases the PSPA will permit transfers to similar or public sector type arrangements overseas.

If you are considering transferring to your new public sector employer’s scheme, the PSPA always recommend that you seek the advice of an independent financial adviser who is licensed to advise you on pension issues. A list of advisers on the Isle of Man is available on the FSA website.

For those transferring in pension entitlements from the UK public sector schemes, you may wish to also consider how the ongoing 'McCloud' judgement may affect any transfer of benefits

If you wish to go ahead and request a transfer then please complete a Transfer Value Out Investigation Request Form and send it to us.

If you are a member of a Protected Section (Section 2, 3 or 4 only) of the Isle of Man Government Unified Scheme 2011 you are able to move to the Section 1 (Standard).   

Giving up your membership of the Protected Section is an important decision that will affect your financial future. Whilst the Section 1 (Standard) offers a good level of pension at a reasonable cost, it will give you a smaller pension and lump sum than you would achieve if remain in the Protected Section. It is your personal decision to make, but before you do we would urge you to read the information on this page along with the Unified Scheme Guide to understand what you are giving up.

If you switch your benefits to the Standard Section 1, the:    

• pension benefits you have built up so far in the form of your pensionable service will be converted to an equivalent value in Section 1 (Standard);and
• this converted pensionable service and your future pensionable service, from the date this election takes effect, will accrue pension rights as a Section 1 (Standard) Member which are less than what you would have accrued had you remained in you Protected Section;
• contribution rate you pay will be 7.5%

If you wish to switch to Section 1 (Standard) then please complete the Election to transfer to Section 1 (Standard) Form and return to the PSPA. Please note that we will require up to 2 months notice to process your request.

If you think you might need a bigger pension, you can top up your retirement savings by paying additional voluntary contributions to another pension arrangement that is personal to you.

With these types of pension savings plans, you pay what you can afford to at different times of your life. The benefits you receive from it when you retire are based on:

• how much you contribute;
• the performance of your investment options you choose; and
• the cost of buying a retirement income when you retire.

When you retire you use this fund to buy an additional pension for you (or for you and your dependants). You can also take some of this money as a cash lump sum.

The PSPA has an arrangement for scheme members with MAC Financial on the Island, who will advise you on the arrangements available to you. If you would like to know more, please contact MAC Financial directly.   

Paid Family Leave

If you and your spouse or civil partner decide to legally end your relationship, you may need to request information on the value of your pension.

This is to allow the courts to consider whether or not your pension should be shared with your partner, and by how much.

You can ask us to calculate a Cash Equivalent Transfer Value (CETV) representing the cash value of the benefits you’ve accrued in the scheme, including your pension, lump sum and surviving dependant’s pension.

The court may award a percentage of this CETV to your ex-spouse or ex-civil partner, giving them pension benefits based upon the amount awarded by the court.

If you receive a pension sharing order, your pension benefits will be reduced to take this into account. They become a credit member of the pension scheme.

To find out more on how this process will work then please read the PSPA Divorce and Dissolution Guide. If you want to request a CETV then please complete the Divorce and Dissolution Application Form.

For information regarding charges see our Charges for an estimate page.

In order to change your address with regard to your Isle of Man Government Occupational Pension Scheme, please complete the Change of Address Form and return it to the PSPA:

By post to:
Public Sector Pensions Authority,
3rd Floor Prospect House,
27-29 Prospect Hill,
Douglas,
Isle of Man, 
IM1 1ET

Or via Email: pensions@pspa.im

If you are wanting to change your address with Government through the Online Form, please visit the Change you address with Government website.