Seeking Pension advice 1995 / 2015 scheme following NHS England letter regarding Pension Flexibility

Heatha

I received a letter from NHS England on 20.03.2023 stating I will have flexible ways of taking my NHS pension.  I have 17 years accrued in the 1995 pension, retirement age 60  and I have been in the 2015 pension since 2017, retirement age 67.  I am 59 this year and would like to help my daughter through university so have no intention of retiring.  I am a top Band 6 and work full time.

The options are from 01.04.2023 retire and return, rejoining the 2015 scheme.  Subject to certain conditions (which are not explained in the letter!) I can:

Take my full pension and tax free lump sum

Take a short break, not sure how long as this is as no explanation is provided.

Return to work and re-join the 2015 scheme.  

Work as much as you like without having your pension payments reduced or stopped.  The letter does not give details about tax implications.

The other option comes into play on 01.10.2023 partial retirement.

Take some or all of my pension and a tax free lump sum

Carrying on working without taking a break - work with my employer to adjust my hours / reshape my contract so my pensionable pay is at least 10% lower

Build up more pension in the 2015 scheme.

My questions are:-

Does anyone know what the "certain conditions" are relating to the first option?
How long the "short break" would be ?
What the tax implications are?

I am not sure which option would benefit me the most and am looking for some advice please.
Many thanks 

infj

I can answer some of this but not all.
The certain conditions may refer to whether your employer will allow you to retire and return. My employer seems to be happy to allow anyone to do so as they want to keep staff but that may not be the case for all NHS employers. But if you are clinical the chances are they will practically beg you to stay.

NHS Pensions requires a minimum 24 hour break from NHS employment before returning to your supposedly "new" job
But different NHS employers have different policies as to whether 24 hours is enough, so you'd have to check your employer's policy e.g mine is minimum 7 day break.

I don't know much about the tax implications other than the obvious one that if you carry on working full time AND take all your pension, you are going to be paying a lot more tax!!!!