NHS Partial retirement and Redundancy 13/11/2025

Dizzy221298

I  am in this position.  I took partial retirement in March 2025, to get my lump sum for home improvement's to enable my husband to come home from the hospice, he unfortunately didn't make it.  This seems so unfair.  I haven't had a break in service 35 yrs in total I reduced my hours by the required 10%.  I worked 37.5 hrs one week then back to work the next week on 30hrs. My lump sum was my money why should I be penalised and miss out on redundancy pay?  To say I feel let down by an institution that I respected and worked for for 35 yrs is an understatement.  I would love that Martin may look into this and get on his "soapbox" for all us NHS staff caught up in this awful situation.  I know the unions are disputing this :- This is why UNISON has approached the NHS Staff Council and DHSC to seek an urgent amendment to the wording of 16.6, such that full employment service counts for staff who have partially retired. 
This will take time and my CSU are looking at December to start the process with VR with staff leaving in March.  I'm hoping others read this and somehow gets the attention of Martin who if anyone can get such an unjust policy/decision overturned in parliament he can !!!!

ClashCityRocker1

Are you saying you took partial retirement in March and now you are being made redundant so you get a smaller payout as a result of the partial retirement?

Nebulous2

ClashCityRocker1 said:

Are you saying you took partial retirement in March and now you are being made redundant so you get a smaller payout as a result of the partial retirement?

There is a break in contract and you start again. The period you receive redundancy money for is reset to the date your new contract starts. So in this case probably a few months instead of 35 years. 

That should have been made clear when the person took part of their pension and a break in service. 

It has been discussed on MSE before.... 

GrubbyGirl_2

You had the benefit of your long service when you retired.  You effectively started again when you returned, unfortunately you don't get 2 bites of the cherry

Purplelady65

Nebulous2 said:

ClashCityRocker1 said:

Are you saying you took partial retirement in March and now you are being made redundant so you get a smaller payout as a result of the partial retirement?

There is a break in contract and you start again. The period you receive redundancy money for is reset to the date your new contract starts. So in this case probably a few months instead of 35 years. 

That should have been made clear when the person took part of their pension and a break in service. 

It has been discussed on MSE before.... 

Partial retirement is different to retire and return. There is no break in service as there is with retire and return but the years are classed as ‘spent’ for the purposes of redundancy. This information is not provided on the pension application forms so I can understand why people have ended up caught out by this. 

Notfarfromtheborder

GrubbyGirl_2 said:

You had the benefit of your long service when you retired.  You effectively started again when you returned, unfortunately you don't get 2 bites of the cherry

Unless I am missing something the OP mentions VR, if the OP doesn't like the terms then why go for VR?

Dizzy221298

Hi thanks for your comments.  It definitely was not mentioned in any of the correspondence, if my years have been "spent" why have all my other conditions stayed the same ie annual leave, sick leave, pay, surely they should have all reverted back to a "new starter" there are so many inconsistencies.  

katejo

Really sorry to read your sad circumstances. I am not sure whether this is the same but might be worth mentioning. I work for a university and, in September reduced to working 3 days a week as a step towards retirement. I haven't taken my pension at all because SAUL doesn't offer Flexi retirement. We were then offered VR. One reason why I didn't seriously consider it was because the payout would have been based on my lower 3 day a week salary even though I had only just reduced my hours.
 

beadjoux

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81738722#Comment_81738722

Retire and Return is what you are thinking of - that is the end of a contract and the start of a new one, with a gap. Employee retires and accesses their full pension, and them comes back to work for an NHS organisation, as a completely new starter, with basic leave etc.

Partial retirement is NOT a break in contract - is does not affect continuous service - the employee stays in hte same job. Local employer policy in my organisation, at the time people accessed Partial Retirement, specifically stated that Partial Retirement does NOT affect entitlement to redundancy payments as is its not a break in service. But now, the Goverment is saying it DOES affect redundancy entitlement and that the employee will reveive redundancy payment based only from the date they accessed a part of their pension. This is inherently unfair and people were seriously misled.

Some are losing out on decades of redundancy entitlement because they followed the rules in place at the time!

beadjoux

They aren't getting two bites - they did not retire - they carried on working in the same job and accessed a PART of their pension, which policy in place at he time they accessed it clearly stated would not affect redundancy - this is continuous service! Some have worked over 40 years!