NHS pension - what age ?

[DinosaurDiana]

I finally managed to get into my NHS pension recently to look at it.
I thought I could take my pension at 55, as I know others older than me have, yet my 1995 pension says 60 and the 2015 says 67.
Does anyone know ?

I think to get it at 55 on the old scheme you had to be a “special class”. Most of my older midwife colleagues retired at 55yo. But I have a feeling not all nurses could/can. 🤷‍♀️

Yep, you need to be in a special class to go at 55 on the old section. Mental health nurse was one of them.

Otherwise its 60/67 depending on how much you have in each section.

I’m astonished as two work colleagues of mine, 5 years older than me, retired at 55 last year. I assumed I could take mine then too 😢

I think public sector tracked the state retirement age so nurses were 60 for women when the women's retirement age was 60 but increased when they changed it. It's certainly what happened to exh's scheme which I'm concerned beneficiary of

They increased it quite a few years ago. One of my friends was hoping to retire but missed it, the date they set, her birthday was a few weeks later, by a couple of weeks. She was beyond furious understandably.

There’s been something in the news recently about the unions bringing an age discrimination thing against organisations doing this. I think it was the fire brigade who started it but the RCN are saying there’s implications for the nhs. That basically staff who have just missed out have been discriminated against. Not sure if the details as it won’t affect me I don’t think.

I have special class status, and can take my lump sum and 'old pension' paid in up to March 2016 at 55 with no penalty (and then I'm out!). My contributions from 2016 onwards I have to wait until 68.

If you think you may have special class status check if your employer registered you as such with the pension service. My manager didn't, and I had to prove uninterrupted service since 1990 to get it reinstated.

I have a small 1995 deferred one. I know I can take it from 50 but I lose a set amount from the lump sum and pension for each year before 60.

So yes it's 60 if you want it in full but there is a calculator you can use to work out how much you would get if you take it early.

www.nhsemployers.org/pay-pensions-and-reward/pensions/nhs-pension-scheme/scheme-consultations/removing-age-discrimination-nhs-pension

Maybe it’s something to do with when people got transferred to the new scheme. I still don’t understand it. I’m in 2 different nhs schemes....the current one, and the one before that.

You can go at 55 if you want, but your pensions will be actuarially reduced for early retirement. If your colleagues don't have special class status then perhaps they just decided to take the hit of actuarial reduction and went early.

@pbdr

You can go at 55 if you want, but your pensions will be actuarially reduced for early retirement. If your colleagues don't have special class status then perhaps they just decided to take the hit of actuarial reduction and went early.

I don’t think they did, they weren’t in mental health.

If you have special status you pension will have increased more rapidly after 20 years service. The special class status is explained here
pensions.gov.scot/nhs/your-membership/special-class-members-and-mental-health-officers
Usually people know if they have special status.
If you don’t have it you will lose a certain % of your pension for every year you retire early. My dh pension age was 60. He retired at 57 and lost 15% of his pension (5% per year)

Pbdr Can you take a reduced pension at 55 though? I don't think you can in the NHS scheme but I would be happy to stand corrected. You can stop working at 55 of course.
OP, I am in the same boat. I started my career just after they stopped the mental health officer status so I am green with Envy watching my colleagues retire from 55.

As its public sector it will be 67. However you can probably take it earlier but it will be significantly reduced. I can take my local govt one earlier then 67 but the %age cut means it isn’t really a sensible decision.

I had some years off being a SAHM. I wonder if this was decided whilst I wasn’t employed by the NHS ?

I have special class status and don't work in mental health. Never have. There are other criteria. Uninterrupted length of service as a registered nurse paying in before 1995 being mine I think.
Check the link ^
That was part of the reason I made sure I went back to work after having DC.

@pbdr

You can go at 55 if you want, but your pensions will be actuarially reduced for early retirement. If your colleagues don't have special class status then perhaps they just decided to take the hit of actuarial reduction and went early.

This is correct. There are tables on the NHS pension website which show you the percentage reduction for every month you take it early. There's also a simpler rough guide showing an annual reduction so if you take it at exactly 55, 56 etc.

As your pension is in 2 pots, you will need to look at the tables for both schemes. As they have different retirement ages, the impact of going earlier will be different for each.

Iirc, you had to be in the old pension scheme at the time if you wanted to choose to remain in it, so if you weren't employed in the NHS at that point, your future contributions would automatically go into the newer scheme.

If you want to know what impact retiring early would have, you can request a quote which I think you might have to pay for.

Must also warn you, that dealing with the NHS pension team is an absolute nightmare. They made multiple mistakes in my case, which if I hadnt pursued, would have cost me several thousands pounds a year. It took a formal complaint for me to get this resolved. Quotes were wrong on multiple occasions, one took over 6 months, and they started paying my (actuarially reduced) pension 4 months early. In the end I gave up trying to put that right.

@DinosaurDiana

I’m astonished as two work colleagues of mine, 5 years older than me, retired at 55 last year. I assumed I could take mine then too 😢

I was hoping I could take mine too. I'm almost 53, no longer working as a Nurse.

Check put the McCloud judgement and consultation response. www.gov.uk/government/consultations/public-service-pension-schemes-consultation-changes-to-the-transitional-arrangements-to-the-2015-schemes?utm_source=6b2b166d-b9a7-4c3c-b015-3a54b30ae67a&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=govuk-notifications&utm_content=immediate

If you are in a union they will be able to advise how it will impact on you.

@Margaritatime

Check put the McCloud judgement and consultation response. www.gov.uk/government/consultations/public-service-pension-schemes-consultation-changes-to-the-transitional-arrangements-to-the-2015-schemes?utm_source=6b2b166d-b9a7-4c3c-b015-3a54b30ae67a&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=govuk-notifications&utm_content=immediate

If you are in a union they will be able to advise how it will impact on you.

Not necessarily.

The BMA and HSCA (doctors unions) have both said explicitly that they won't offer individualised advice due to how fiendishly complex the scheme is.

They recommend specialist pensions advice, which is hilarious given that significant numbers of specialist public sector penions advisors and accountancy firms have got this advice wrong to the cost of sometimes 10s of thousands of pounds tax bills arriving unexpectedly...

Lots of people choose to retire at 55 (soon to be 57) but they take a reduced pension in doing so. They didn’t necessarily leave with their full pension.

@FixTheBone
You are right about “advice” so I will rephrase.

Your TU will be able to provide you with information about the different schemes you are in including the earliest you can draw your pension in each scheme, links to calculators to work out the impact of taking your pension early, how to get up to date pension statements, what the McCloud remedy will be in general terms, the time line etc.

i'm hoping that i can stash enough cash to go at 60 on my 1995 section pension augmented by the cash I've saved until my my 2015 section pension kicks in.

I can dream.

The scheme is unbelievably complicated - I can't get automated statements as my contributions are apparently " too complicated".

I don't think my contribution history is that complicated - I've worked for the NHS consistently since graduating and have never done anything exotic career wise just SHO, then ST rotations. The agency isn't fit for purpose thousands of us will be in the same boat.

You have a right to request a pension statement even if they can’t produce one automatically.

Under McCloud remedy you will have to be given statements for each option.

I would write/email your pension provider and request a pension statement for each scheme you are in. This is where your TU can help if they refuse to provide one.

A private pension can be taken at aged 55 -maybe this is what your colleagues have accessed (and they also happened to work for the NHS, but won't be able to access the NHS pension until they're older)