The Single Public Service Pension Scheme — "Single Scheme" — covers most people who joined the Irish public service since 2013. Unlike a private-sector pension pot, it's a Defined Benefit scheme: your pension is a formula based on your service and pay, not an investment balance that can go up or down. That formula is exactly what this calculator projects.
How the projection is worked out
Each year of service accrues a pension "referable amount" — 0.58% of pensionable pay up to a threshold (3.74× the Contributory State Pension), plus 1.25% on pay above that threshold. A separate lump sum referable amount accrues at a flat 3.75% of pensionable pay every year. Both referable amounts accumulate year over year and are uprated by CPI as they go — this isn't a final-salary calculation, it's a running total that grows with every year worked.
The calculator projects this forward to your Normal Retirement Age (tied to the State Pension age — currently 66 for standard accrual members) assuming realistic pay growth, so the number you see isn't just "today's formula times years left" — it accounts for career progression too.
What you enter
- Current age and Normal Retirement Age — sets how many years of accrual are left to project
- Member category — Standard Accrual covers most public servants; other categories (uniformed services, etc.) accrue differently
- Full-time equivalent gross annual pensionable pay — your full-time salary plus pensionable allowances, even if you currently work part-time
- Work pattern (% of full-time) — 100% if full-time, 50% for a week-on-week-off job-share, and so on — this scales the referable amounts you actually accrue
Not the same as the private sector
This calculator is specifically for the Single Scheme — if you're looking for a private-sector pension pot or the auto-enrolment scheme instead, that's a different calculation entirely (a Defined Contribution pot, not a Defined Benefit formula). The My Future Fund calculator on the Irish Tax Calculator covers that case, including AVC tax-relief headroom for anyone topping up on the side.
Project your own Single Scheme pension. Free, runs entirely in your browser — nothing you enter is sent anywhere.
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