Leaving the NHS - what happens to my pension.

[WantingToEducate]

I have worked as an NHS nurse for 17 years and I am almost 40 years
old.

I have a chronic health condition that I believe is exacerbated by various aspects of my role and so last month I decided to put my health first and I handed in my resignation. My notice period ends at the end of August.

I will not be returning to the NHS and I doubt I ever will.

So my question is….what happens to my pension? Does the NHS just keep hold of it until I reach pension age?

Or can I simply ask to have the money and then just keep it in my own savings?

It will stay there unless you transfer it to another pension

It has to stay within a pension scheme - either the nhs or you can transfer to another pension provider (where again it will stay until you reach pension age). NB be VERY carefuL if you move it, there are a lot of scams out here and some people have lost everything

Presumably this is either a final salary scheme or one based on career average. Either way there's a clear defined benefit payable when you hit pension age.
That's worth a lot more than the few £k in your bank....

Yes.
As you've been a member of over 2 years.

It will just stay there.

You lose certain benefits such as death in service and other payments after death if you arent working in the NHS.

But when you reach pension age you will receive your pension. I dont think this pension can be transferred to a different provider.

Have you looked into ill health retirement? It's not easy but for me (couldn't work again aged 38 has been a life saver).

If not I think its frozen /or you can transfer it.

It's not frozen. It still increases as per CPI and percentage every year as per the documents.

It will stay in the nhs scheme. You will be on a defined benefit scheme, which means that you get paid a fixed amount no matter how the underlying investments perform. For every year you worked, you will have built up a percentage of your salary to pay out at retirement. You can transfer to another scheme, but it is not likely to be a good idea as defined benefit is very rare now. You can't take any money until around 10 years before state pension age.

I think frozen is a professional term. The number of years in the scheme remain as they are and no further service/accrues.

AIUI if you want to cash in the value of a defined benefit scheme you'll have some big time hoop jumping to do. It may though be possible to transfer the years into another public sector scheme.

The NHS will be able to tell you whether that's possible.

Thank you all so much - this has been so helpful!!

I have read about this but I don’t think it’s applicable as my condition won’t stop me from being able to work somewhere else, I just don’t want to work for the NHS anymore. The stress, the pressures, the hours etc really aren’t good for my health, hence why I want out 😂

I could quite easily go and work somewhere else though.

It still might be worth you investigating ill health retirement as some schemes will give a partial pay out - for example if medically you can only do a job for lower pay than you used to receive from the NHS.