After a little bit of advice I would like to be able to compare pensions.

A pension pays out 1/40th of my salary for every years service. For this I will pay 3.5%. So lets say for easy maths I earn £40k pa, so for every years service I earn £1k in pension (not contributions actually amount payable)

Now, how do I compare that to a scheme where you & employer put money in to a pension which buys shares? Ie. I pay 3.5%, employer pays 16.5%, so 20% of pa income is invested. Obviously you have to try to put a guestimate on how that will grow over the years (3%?)

Which one works out best? And how much of a difference is there?

Yes I know, go and see an expert, I will do when I get round to it, but I'd like to have a vague clue of what I'm asking them!

In general terms the first is a 'secure' income guaranteed by the plan, the second is what is called 'money purchase' and really depends on the stock market and interest rates, it could be better or worse but has more risk attached, so there is no definitive answer to yoiur question.

point to note most empoyers are turning away from option one and toward option 2 at the moment as it is ALOT cheaper for them…………and they usually have some pretty good number crunchers

I think you buy an annuity with your pension fund which then pays you an income – so there are 2 variables – (i) what you will have to spend on an annuity and (ii) what income that annuity will buy you.

No doubt google will help ,there are ound to be calculators online.

The 1st option puts the investment risk on the company and the second one on you.

In this day and age I would bite the hand off any employer that is offering a defined benefit pension, they are rare as hens' teeth nowadays.