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Here’s a summary of how investment markets affect your pension savings… 

For members of a Defined Benefit (DB) Section 

If you’re part of a Defined Benefit (DB) Section, your pension is based on your salary and how long you’ve worked, rather than on daily market movements. So even though markets can go up and down, your DB pension remains unchanged.  

You will be a DB member if you have a pension in any section of the Railways Pension Scheme apart from the Industry-Wide Defined Contribution (IWDC) Section. However, if you are a member of the IWDC Section or pay Additional Voluntary Contributions to BRASS or AVC Extra, these work differently. 

For members of BRASS, AVC Extra or the Industry-Wide Defined Contribution (IWDC) Section 

When you pay into BRASS, AVC Extra or the IWDC Section, you invest your money into funds to try to build your savings over time. How these funds perform plays a significant part in determining how much money will be in your pot.  

The value of the investment funds is likely to change over time - it can go down as well as up. This is normal. High-risk funds are likely to have bigger and sharper rises and falls in value over the short-term, but long-term they are expected (although not guaranteed) to grow more in value. 

Our Lifestyle strategies are designed to reduce risk as you get closer to retirement. This helps to better protect your savings from large market swings as you approach retirement. The Lifestyle strategies are also used as the ‘default’, so if you haven’t actively chosen to invest elsewhere, you’ll automatically be invested in a Lifestyle strategy. 

What’s happened to the markets recently? 

You may have seen headlines in the news recently about stock markets going down in value. This is largely due to events in the US, as President Trump announced trade tariffs in early April which caused uncertainty among investors about how companies would perform in future. Because of this, the share price of many companies has seen a drop in value. 

It can be unsettling to see your investments drop in value. Historically markets have bounced back over time, although there’s no guarantee of this happening or even how long that might take. 

What do you need to do?  

Most members won’t need to do anything. Your pension, and our investment approach, are designed to weather short-term market changes.   

However, you may want to speak to an independent financial adviser (IFA), particularly if you’re close to retirement and aren’t planning to invest for the longer term. IFAs can help you make the right decision for your situation.