Retire - LGPS - Work on bithday or not?

Steve26

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andyfr_2

I start early and finish early. I don't have the time or the inclination to waste time browsing the Internet during the working day.

I asked a simple question which no-one has managed to give me the answer to as yet.

philip1988

Looking at it logically I would say that you would have to work on your birthday.



If the you haven't achieved the "85 years" rule until your birthday, it therefore means if you retire the day before you will have only achieved 84 years

OldBeanz

Throw a sicky.

PensionTech

I've had this question come up a few times on various schemes.

The approach we've always taken as administrators is that the first day of retirement (if retiring from active) is the day following your last day of service. So if your birthday is on the 25th, you work up to and including the 24th, and then you retire on the 25th, meaning that for the 25th itself you are retired rather than in service. This is actually important for much more than the rule of 85 - it comes into play when calculating early retirement factors and all sorts.

That said, it's not something that everyone necessarily adopts. I remember having to convince a board of trustees of the logic before they would agree to it as a standard policy (until then, they had never really thought about it and everyone had taken whatever approach made sense to them at the time - possibly explaining the inconsistency in the answers you're getting).

Best thing to do to be absolutely sure is set it out in writing, in idiot-proof terms, to the administrator (e.g. "If you receive a notice from my HR department that my last day of active service was on the 24th, and my birthday is on the 25th, will I be deemed to have retired on my birthday and therefore be entitled to qualify for the rule of 85?"). Make sure to point out that you have asked the question before and received vague or inconsistent replies and you would like them to come back with something definitive.

System

Hi

This comes under "Attaining the Age" and the pensions software will show this.

Your birthday is the first day of your retirement, a year is only 365 days in 2015.

So 1st of Jan plus 365 days if 31/12/2015, and you celebrate the anniversary the next day 01/01/16.

patanne

I would definitely get it confirmed in writing, making sure that it states it very clearly, because logically 59years and 364 days of age plus 25 years working does not add up to 85.

maximumgardener

yes....get it in writing if its critical to you.

so.....if OP started work on their birthday with LG (?) and had no breaks in service then the day before their birthday would (or should) be their last day at work to exactly complete 85 years Rule (service + age = 85 years exactly) . Does that make sense to you?

Put that (if applicable ) to your pension admin people in writing.
then as others have said ... your retiral date is your birthday as you won't work that day.
You will be retired!

atush

What if they 'worked' their Bday, but made sure it was a 'holiday' day?

PensionTech

What if they 'worked' their Bday, but made sure it was a 'holiday' day?

I think that's what will happen anyway - looks to me like the OP has enough holiday to cover the last few days of service but wants to know when that holiday period should start i.e. should it include the birthday itself or not.

logically 59years and 364 days of age

The point is that we are querying the retirement date itself. Either the member works to age 59 364/365, and age 60 is the first day of retirement i..e he retires at age 60 and doesn't work that day, or he works and retires on 60th birthday. To me the former actually does make more sense because if you are both working and retiring on your 60th birthday, your pension and your salary will both be paid to you in respect of that day. Seems to me that retirement from active should not result in overlap of pension and salary payments. So I would say it makes more sense for your last day of service to be the day before you "retire" for the purposes of the scheme i.e. if your last day of service is the day before your birthday, the next day is the day of your actual retirement when your age will be 60 exact.