Civil Service Partial Retirement

german_keeper

I am 55 and a partially retired civil servant since 1 April this year. I had over 32 years in Classic, 6 months in Alpha, and I have been in the Partnership scheme since Oct 2015. So effectively I took my deferred Classic 5 years early with Actuarial Reduction, left the piddling bit of Alpha where it was and will remain in the Partnership scheme till I fully retire at 60.
I have a colleague in exactly the same position who has put in for Partial Retirement from his 55th birthday and he has been told by MyCSP that he isn't eligible for PR because he is in the Partnership scheme. He was just chasing the progress of his application with the Helpline and it has been escalated within MyCSP so hopefully it will be sorted out. He tried to explain that even if he had left the Civil Service completely, he would have the right to take his deferred Classic with appropriate AR but the chap he spoke to didn't seem to grasp the point.
Can anyone shed any further light this, are we missing something here? Thanks.

Andy_L

Is it a misunderstanding? You can't do partial retirement with Partnership (as a DC scheme there is no need to - you can take the benefits early and there is no legal basis for abatement) but his previous service with Classic is PR-able

macjonny

I am in exactly the same position - just found out that I can't take partial because I switched from Classic to Partnership. I am having similar problems getting a clear answer from MyCSP, and my work pensions team are even less helpful. MyCSP seemed to think that I'd transferred my classic pension into partnership, and at first thought I did not have a classic pension at all.

I've been told I need to submit a form to start claiming my deferred pension to start claiming my pension on the day I switch to part time.

FWIW, I suspect that the outcome will be that we will be treated as people who have effectively left the civil service and rejoined from a pensions point of view - i.e., we'll still be subject to abatement on the civil service DB element. So hopefully, it's a technicality which should not impact on amounts paid.

I'll post here if I get any more firm information.

german_keeper

Yes, thanks anything further will be appreciated.

My PR went very smoothly. I contacted my HR (HMRC) direct and explained that my PR request was very short notice due to my caring responsibility and it was done very quickly. HR were fantastic, keeping me informed throughout and MyCSP were initially very good too. They then went a bit rubbish when I had a couple of questions but never any suggestion from them that I couldn't take PR due to being in Partnership. And the only forms I filled in were the HMRC PR ones, nothing specifically relating to claiming my deferred Classic.

My mate who I referenced in the OP is with DWP so maybe the HR people are the key.

1vinny

Hi. I'm the colleague referred to in the opening post by german Keeper. On Friday i received an email from MyCSP which said

'As you have been in the Partnership Pension scheme since 2015 we are unable to process partial retirement with the civil service scheme'

I think there may be some confusion about using the term partial retirement and being in the partnership scheme so i have wrote to them a covering letter and applied to claim a deferred classic pension instead which is a different form from than the PR one.

I'm not holding out much hope though and i think there will be a long battle ahead!