Effect on Final salary pension when taking early retirement

[LOVELYDOVEY05]

Cousin 55 and been with same employer since the age of 18. The employer is currently hinting that my cousin may have to go down to 3 days a week. It could get even worse in the coming years.
As she wishes to continue full-time working I have suggested taking early retirement and going elsewhere.
Voluntary redundancy may also be available though obviously you cannot have both early retirement and redundancy. I suspect that vol redundancy may not actually be given to those older employees especially those who have been there a long time.
So as she may only be working there 3 days a week her pension may be effected anyway so just better to retire early and work elsewhere?

She needs to find out the details of the scheme she is on and how part time work/early retirement is treated.

It's not normally as simple as saying you were on X per year full time but then went down to 3 days per week so your final salary is only 3/5 of X. There is normally a fairer mechanism for dealing with part time employees. But she really needs to find out more about her specific pension scheme and talk to an expert.

She needs proper advice.

Just because she leaves an employer doesn’t mean she has to take retirement....she can leave and freeze the pension and take it at normal retirement age.

If she has to reduce her hours she can also ask about freezing her pension while still working there.

Please urge your cousin to write to the scheme administrators to get an early retirement quotation and ask for a copy of the scheme member's handbook. As @Speedy85 said, don't worry about the potential new part time hours affecting the pension entitlement accrued so far.

Be mindful that there is a big difference in the way benefits are calculated between retiring from active service and leaving the company (the pension pot being paid up) and then taking the pension in the future.

Once you have received a quotation from the administrators you can ring them for clarification on the rules of the scheme, but they will not be drawn into giving advice to scheme members.

If you are still unsure about your options -make an appointment with an Financial Adviser. Good luck!