Can any nhs nurse of a certain age out there explain this retire and return 1995 pension?

[EachandEveryone]

Im literally going loopy trying to work out what is right for me. Ive confirmed I have special status go at 55 and I keep reading that every year after 55 if you dont take your monthly pension you may as well through it away. Is that true? Of course not many can afford to go and i myself will go back if my manager lets me😀 i would plan to reduced hours so that the monthly pension makes up for that.

the icing on the cake is that I am being treated for cancer any my consultant is happy to sign me off for medical retirement. How will this benefit me if i cant pay into 1995 anymore and theres not much in 2018. I would be scared also that I wouldnt beable to go back to work after as I really need to do some sort of help.

Honesrly the whole thing is just confusing everyone. I think we all need to write to Martin Lewis.

You cannot pay into the 1995 scheme any more it is closed. Everyone will have been moved over at some point to 2015 scheme. It will depend on you age as to when that happened. Under the McCloud ruling, any payments in the 2015 scheme up to March 2022 can be moved back to the 1995 but this will take some time.
The argument for taking your pension at normal pension age (55 for SCS and 60 for the likes of me who lost MHO status) is that it does not increase with deferment. So, yes it's sitting there, unclaimed and not doing anything.
Retire and return is when you retire, take a short unpaid break, claim your pension and then return to work on a new contract. Different Trusts will have different ways of managing this - mine for example re employs you on the same terms and conditions.
There is something called 'abatement' which was dropped in the pandemic which says that you cannot earn more that your pension pays. This has been suspended until 2024 I believe but does not apply if you are over 60.
There is quite a lot of information on the NHSBSA website and your Trust should have a Pensions Officer in payroll - mine explained everything to me very clearly and although they can't give individual advice, they know the regulations inside out and can give you all the information you need.
I don't know about medical retirement but I think the rules applying to this are quite complicated - it's not just a case of your doctor signing you off.
Very best wishes for your cancer treatment

Hi OP.
I flexi retired in Feb this year, also because of ill health, long Covid in my case. I’ve just turned 57.
I have several colleagues who've done it over the years. All of them dropped to one day a week. 2 of them did it for about 10 years but now they’ve hit 65 have left for good. 2 are still doing it. Another hated it because they felt that clinically they were struggling and left after a year so because of that the rest of us have to work at least 17 hours a week. In reality that means alternating 1 and 2 long days a week.
The process was actually pretty simple but you need to set the ball rolling about 3-4 months before. You also need to get it okayed by your line manager. It’s not automatic that they’ll grant it. There’s lots of info on the internet and I found that the people in payroll were really good explaining it. Our trust did loads of one day sessions for anyone contemplating it but with Covid they were mainly online and not as good.
My wage is slightly better than previously tbh and so far clinically I’m coping with not being in as much. Funnily enough I’ve now got time to go on study days etc.
My thinking was that physically the job was doing me in slowly but surely. I now feel much more rested and less stressy.

I was never in 2015 but im in 2018 and the hope is if my health is alright I will go back and pay into 2018.

of course im not contemplating any of this until I get back to work and see how it goes