Civil service lump sum after partial retirement.

Les1867

I am a civil servant and I intend on partially retiring next year when I am 60. I hope to fully retire when I am 65. I have worked for the civil service for 38 years. 
Can somebody please advise me on the following?
Will I receive another lump sum when I fully retire or will I just add to my pension?
Thanks in advance

Dazed_and_C0nfused

Les1867 said:

I am a civil servant and I intend on partially retiring next year when I am 60. I hope to fully retire when I am 65. I have worked for the civil service for 38 years. 
Can somebody please advise me on the following?
Will I receive another lump sum when I fully retire or will I just add to my pension?
Thanks in advance

The pension you will accrue from next year will be in Alpha (assuming you haven't opted out of Alpha and moved to Partnership) and there is no automatic lump sum with Alpha.

Although you can probably give up some of your Alpha pension in return for a lump sum.  Whether that is a a good option (financially) is another question.

daveyjp

Not sure you can 'partially' retire. 

I don't know CS rules, but the options usually are:

reduce hours and go part time, keep your existing pension with reduced hours contribution

or retire, take your accrued pension benefits at 60 and then be rehired on a part time contract which will accrue a new pension for 5 years.

hugheskevi

daveyjp said:

Not sure you can 'partially' retire. 

I don't know CS rules, but the options usually are:

reduce hours and go part time, keep your existing pension with reduced hours contribution

or retire, take your accrued pension benefits at 60 and then be rehired on a part time contract which will accrue a new pension for 5 years.

In the Civil Service, as long as pay is reduced by 20%+ (usually by moving to part-time, but could be by remaining full-time and reducing grade) then the individual can partially retire and take some or all of their pension.

indiasign

hugheskevi said:

daveyjp said:

Not sure you can 'partially' retire. 

I don't know CS rules, but the options usually are:

reduce hours and go part time, keep your existing pension with reduced hours contribution

or retire, take your accrued pension benefits at 60 and then be rehired on a part time contract which will accrue a new pension for 5 years.

In the Civil Service, as long as pay is reduced by 20%+ (usually by moving to part-time, but could be by remaining full-time and reducing grade) then the individual can partially retire and take some or all of their pension.

Can confirm - I’ve just put in my papers to do exactly that in April next year, taking the Premium element of my pension when I turn 60, and dropping a day off my working week 🙂

hugheskevi

indiasign said:

hugheskevi said:

daveyjp said:

Not sure you can 'partially' retire. 

I don't know CS rules, but the options usually are:

reduce hours and go part time, keep your existing pension with reduced hours contribution

or retire, take your accrued pension benefits at 60 and then be rehired on a part time contract which will accrue a new pension for 5 years.

In the Civil Service, as long as pay is reduced by 20%+ (usually by moving to part-time, but could be by remaining full-time and reducing grade) then the individual can partially retire and take some or all of their pension.

Can confirm - I’ve just put in my papers to do exactly that in April next year, taking the Premium element of my pension when I turn 60, and dropping a day off my working week 🙂

You should be sure you will not be affected by abatement - and remember to take into account the 2015 Remedy which will give you the choice of Premium or Alpha membership for the period 2015-22. In general, Premium will be better than Alpha, so that is a lot of Premium membership.

If your combined Premium pension plus part-time pay exceeds your full-time salary, the pension will be abated. In which case, you will literally be working some of the week for nothing.

horsewithnoname

hugheskevi said:

indiasign said:

hugheskevi said:

daveyjp said:

Not sure you can 'partially' retire. 

I don't know CS rules, but the options usually are:

reduce hours and go part time, keep your existing pension with reduced hours contribution

or retire, take your accrued pension benefits at 60 and then be rehired on a part time contract which will accrue a new pension for 5 years.

In the Civil Service, as long as pay is reduced by 20%+ (usually by moving to part-time, but could be by remaining full-time and reducing grade) then the individual can partially retire and take some or all of their pension.

Can confirm - I’ve just put in my papers to do exactly that in April next year, taking the Premium element of my pension when I turn 60, and dropping a day off my working week 🙂

You should be sure you will not be affected by abatement - and remember to take into account the 2015 Remedy which will give you the choice of Premium or Alpha membership for the period 2015-22. In general, Premium will be better than Alpha, so that is a lot of Premium membership.

If your combined Premium pension plus part-time pay exceeds your full-time salary, the pension will be abated. In which case, you will literally be working some of the week for nothing.

But the abated amount increases with inflation. If you are over NPA then you have to consider whether you pay will increase less or more than inflation. You can take part of your pension if you wish, and the untaken portion will increase in line with your pay. 

indiasign

hugheskevi said:

indiasign said:

hugheskevi said:

daveyjp said:

Not sure you can 'partially' retire. 

I don't know CS rules, but the options usually are:

reduce hours and go part time, keep your existing pension with reduced hours contribution

or retire, take your accrued pension benefits at 60 and then be rehired on a part time contract which will accrue a new pension for 5 years.

In the Civil Service, as long as pay is reduced by 20%+ (usually by moving to part-time, but could be by remaining full-time and reducing grade) then the individual can partially retire and take some or all of their pension.

Can confirm - I’ve just put in my papers to do exactly that in April next year, taking the Premium element of my pension when I turn 60, and dropping a day off my working week 🙂

You should be sure you will not be affected by abatement - and remember to take into account the 2015 Remedy which will give you the choice of Premium or Alpha membership for the period 2015-22. In general, Premium will be better than Alpha, so that is a lot of Premium membership.

If your combined Premium pension plus part-time pay exceeds your full-time salary, the pension will be abated. In which case, you will literally be working some of the week for nothing.

No abatement issues for me, I’m already working part time, at 4 days a week, dropping to 3 in April, so the reduction in salary is well above the amount I’m taking in pension, because I was only in Premium for 3 years.

drummersdale

Hi @Les1867 I took "partial" retirement in August 2022 - went down to 2 & a half days/18.5 hours a week (so half my normal week) - no issues with abatement for me as I dropped a fair bit hours wise.  Also this years pension statement just shows the Alpha element - which will accrue until I decide to retire fully and as others have said can be exchanged for a lump sum, although I'm not going down the rabbit hole of if it should be done that way, etc