What made you 'pull the trigger'? 9 January at 11:00AM in Pensions, annuities & retirement planning 289 replies 71K views

Toucan13

In my case a parent's diagnosis of an illness which would mean a long slow decline in health with care ultimately needed, and then a restructure a couple of years later at work plus my own health scare made me realise I definitely wanted to get off the long hours / lots of UK travel hamster wheel to get more time.   

Whilst the redundancy package on offer wasn't very generous it did give me some breathing space.  I still work P/T in a different field 5 years later and as I'm DC only I can be flexible about when and how I use my pension savings.  No regrets so far.

Albermarle

chubsta said:

SMcGill said:

3. A voluntary severance scheme opened up … I thought “that’s my bus!”

That is the absolute dream for me - instead of retiring, take voluntary severance, and then claim my pension a month or so later - unfortunately, whilst such things are not unheard of in my line of work, apparently we are 'essential' so will never happen to us...

I have been surprised by how many posters on this thread, were able to take some form of voluntary redundancy/severance package to help them on their way.
Like you, such things were relatively uncommon in my line of work, so I had to make the decision without this 'help'

Pensions_matter_2

Likewise, there was no chance of voluntary redundancy/severance package for me. What a difference that would have made!  A real game changer if you are lucky to get it.

NedS

As a civil servant, I got all excited when they recently announced 91,000 job cuts, but Rishi has since back-tracked and axed the plan much to my disappointment. I had my letter drafted to the head of the CS offering to fall on my sword in the interests of the country. They class me as essential, but I'm not really sure I am (and my pay rise cut certainly doesn't reflect that). Still, I live in hope.

trevjl

Redundancy, now there is a dream.
Message from my boss last week in the middle of 4 months on the sick.

"Whats in your bench, may need to clear it out" (bench= office dwellers equivalent of the desk!)

I excitedly replied "are you paying me off " 

One word reply in capitals "NO"

drummersdale

I took partial retirement in August last year after 41 years and then got wind of the possibility of a VES scheme and got all excited - but then I thought I’d probably get next to nothing as my 60th birthday is coming up in February so I would be at NPA - for Classic at least. Although I’m now in the Alpha scheme so maybe they would treat my NPA as 67. Anyway the thought was nice while it lasted….

More_complicated_than_that

I used to walk the dogs with a neighbour who was the same age, who dreamed of retiring early and so was stuffing his pension.  I always planned to stay until 67.  He got ill in March 2020, died a few months later.  I thought about it for a year and retired at age 53 with a comfortable sized DC pot.  After a year at home I decided to do a PhD.  Going fine so far.

german_keeper

drummersdale said:

I took partial retirement in August last year after 41 years and then got wind of the possibility of a VES scheme and got all excited - but then I thought I’d probably get next to nothing as my 60th birthday is coming up in February so I would be at NPA - for Classic at least. Although I’m now in the Alpha scheme so maybe they would treat my NPA as 67. Anyway the thought was nice while it lasted….

There was a lot of discussion about this a couple of years ago and I think it was confirmed that if in the Alpha scheme at the time of redundancy/early release then the NPA would be 67 and the rules applied as such. Not sure how widely it was publicised and I certainly didn't see anything from official channels.

The "package" boat sailed for me last August when I retired. The numbers added up for me and there was no real sniff of redundancy in the air so I decided you can't put a price on those extra years retirement.

I know a couple of people in a similar situation who are still hanging on hoping for things to change. But as I understand it the HMRC site where I used to work, which is a transitional site in the HMRC Superstore Project and due to close in 2025, now looks like it might be extended. For their sake I hope things change and they get their package, particularly with NRA of 67, but there will be no regrets from me at all.       

Ciprico

I was going to retire In December at 60... Then thought I might as well wait till spring... At spring I'll probably find another excuse...

I can afford to retire but can't seem to find it in myself to just pack in a reliable, well paid, working from home, cushy, dull job.

drummersdale

german_keeper said:

drummersdale said:

I took partial retirement in August last year after 41 years and then got wind of the possibility of a VES scheme and got all excited - but then I thought I’d probably get next to nothing as my 60th birthday is coming up in February so I would be at NPA - for Classic at least. Although I’m now in the Alpha scheme so maybe they would treat my NPA as 67. Anyway the thought was nice while it lasted….

There was a lot of discussion about this a couple of years ago and I think it was confirmed that if in the Alpha scheme at the time of redundancy/early release then the NPA would be 67 and the rules applied as such. Not sure how widely it was publicised and I certainly didn't see anything from official channels.

The "package" boat sailed for me last August when I retired. The numbers added up for me and there was no real sniff of redundancy in the air so I decided you can't put a price on those extra years retirement.

I know a couple of people in a similar situation who are still hanging on hoping for things to change. But as I understand it the HMRC site where I used to work, which is a transitional site in the HMRC Superstore Project and due to close in 2025, now looks like it might be extended. For their sake I hope things change and they get their package, particularly with NRA of 67, but there will be no regrets from me at all.       

Hi @[email protected]_keeper - if Alpha NPA was the defacto in any VES/VER scheme I would be very happy although I’m
not sure how much I would get as a) I’m effectively part time, b) partially retired and c) perhaps have too many years in (41). I did try reading the guidance but couldn’t make head nor tail of it.  I shall keep my fingers firmly crossed 🤞 Hope you’re enjoying retirement - I’m finding 2 and a half days is good for me and although happy to be flexible in terms of flipping the odd half day here and there my management seem to have grasped that if they send me anything (or invite me to a meeting) on a Monday, Thursday afternoon or a Friday then I simply won’t respond.