Civil Service Alpha - 'career break' safety net and start drawing pension?

michaels

So one of our CS benefits is that we can request an unpaid 'career break' I think of up at least 2 years duration.

I am planning on retiring at 55 and possibly drawing my alpha pension with actuarial reduction then (mostly to avoid any future possible Lifetime Allowance risk). 

I wonder if rather than formally retiring I could make it initially a 'career break' but still be allowed to start drawing the pension thus leaving the door open for a return to the CS should I decide that retirement is not for me or the money is not working out as I had hoped (or even if there was a voluntary retirement scheme announced).

Thoughts?

hugheskevi

Yes, fine in theory, although there would be some minor practical issues to deal with.

To take your pension you would need to partially retire prior to starting the unpaid leave.I guess you could try doing it whilst on unpaid leave, but that would probably be more difficult.

Unpaid leave is at discretion of employer so may not be approved. If you are honest with your reason for requesting it, I doubt it would be approved.