NHS Pension

mumibear

I will hopefully  be leaving NHS employment in the next few months - I will be 60 in September and plan on taking my pension in October 2023 when hopefully the McLeod judgement is sorted and I can make an informed decision.  The vast majority of my pension is in the 1995 scheme I was tapered into the 2015 scheme April 2021.  I have a pension in a sipp from previous employment and plan to use this and savings to live on until October.  Question is am I doing the sensible thing by leaving 6 months early or will this have a negative impact on my NHS pension ?

MX5huggy

I don’t see that you should be waiting for McLeod to be “sorted”. 

From https://faq.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/knowledgebase/article/KA-25794/en-us

If you’ve already retired, or retire before 1 October 2023, we’ll write to you and ask you to make your choice retrospectively. If needed, we’ll backdate all payments to your date of retirement.

Dazed_and_C0nfused

mumibear said:

I will hopefully  be leaving NHS employment in the next few months - I will be 60 in September and plan on taking my pension in October 2023 when hopefully the McLeod judgement is sorted and I can make an informed decision.  The vast majority of my pension is in the 1995 scheme I was tapered into the 2015 scheme April 2021.  I have a pension in a sipp from previous employment and plan to use this and savings to live on until October.  Question is am I doing the sensible thing by leaving 6 months early or will this have a negative impact on my NHS pension ?

The basic answer is yes, it will have a negative impact.

You won't be accruing any additional pension during my that 6 months so your pension will be less that it could otherwise be.

It may not be the wrong thing to do but you will inevitably get less pension than if you were contributing to build up additional pension for those six months.

Andy_L

Dazed_and_C0nfused said:

mumibear said:

I will hopefully  be leaving NHS employment in the next few months - I will be 60 in September and plan on taking my pension in October 2023 when hopefully the McLeod judgement is sorted and I can make an informed decision.  The vast majority of my pension is in the 1995 scheme I was tapered into the 2015 scheme April 2021.  I have a pension in a sipp from previous employment and plan to use this and savings to live on until October.  Question is am I doing the sensible thing by leaving 6 months early or will this have a negative impact on my NHS pension ?

The basic answer is yes, it will have a negative impact.

You won't be accruing any additional pension during my that 6 months so your pension will be less that it could otherwise be.

It may not be the wrong thing to do but you will inevitably get less pension than if you were contributing to build up additional pension for those six months.

The pension will also be reduced by ~2.5% because you are taking it 6 months before the schemes normal retirement age

saucer

Andy_L said:

Dazed_and_C0nfused said:

mumibear said:

I will hopefully  be leaving NHS employment in the next few months - I will be 60 in September and plan on taking my pension in October 2023 when hopefully the McLeod judgement is sorted and I can make an informed decision.  The vast majority of my pension is in the 1995 scheme I was tapered into the 2015 scheme April 2021.  I have a pension in a sipp from previous employment and plan to use this and savings to live on until October.  Question is am I doing the sensible thing by leaving 6 months early or will this have a negative impact on my NHS pension ?

The basic answer is yes, it will have a negative impact.

You won't be accruing any additional pension during my that 6 months so your pension will be less that it could otherwise be.

It may not be the wrong thing to do but you will inevitably get less pension than if you were contributing to build up additional pension for those six months.

The pension will also be reduced by ~2.5% because you are taking it 6 months before the schemes normal retirement age

I think you have mistaken what the OP was saying. They are retiring when already 60 in which case the impact on their largely 1995 pension, with a NRA of 60, will be negligible. It is not clear what the 6 months refers to but you would always get more 2015 benefits if working for longer, but why do that if most of the pension is payable in full at 60?

GrubbyGirl_2

If you are retiring at 60 and are in the 1995 scheme you will get your full pension.  The NHS lost a legal case and they have to offer those that were tapered onto the 2015 scheme the opportunity to have the years before March 2022 (that they were told they were in the 2015 scheme) converted back into the 1995 scheme.  Contact NHSBSA and talk it through with them but you'll find the only bit of the 2015 scheme you are actually in is the time between April 2022 and when you take your pension in 2023.  Simply freeze those months and take them at 65