The NPA, when members can retire without a reduction, is:

• Age 65, for final salary benefits (built up before 1 April 2014)
• Age 65 or their State Pension age (SPA) if later, for career average benefits (built up from 1 April 2014). A members SPA is based on their gender and date of birth and may be subject to change in the future.

Yes.
You can currently choose to take benefits on hold from the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) anytime from age 55. The Government has announced the earliest age that you can take your pension will increase from age 55 to 57 from 6 April 2028. This will not apply to ill health retirements. Special rules apply if you have to retire because of ill health. However, we will normally reduce your pension to reflect the fact that we will be paying it for longer than we expected.

The easiest way to think about this is to think of a pension pot like a birthday cake. If we are going to pay your pot for 20 years then we cut the cake into 20 equal slices. But if you want to take your pension five years early, then we would need to cut it into 25 equal slices. Each of these slices will therefore be slightly smaller in size. If you wanted to take it 10 years early, then we would cut it into 30 equal slices, meaning each slice is smaller still.

The reductions applied to your pension reflect the amount of extra time that we are expecting to pay your pension for.

Example

Mr Jones decides to access the benefit he has on hold at age 59. His NPA is 65, so we will be paying his pension for six years longer than if he took it at NPA.

His benefits on hold pension is currently £2,000 a year. The reduction factor that applies to him (using the early retirement tables) is 25.7 per cent. This applies to all his pension pot. Therefore, the reduction he will receive is £514 meaning his annual pension to be paid from age 59 is £2,000 - £514 = £1,486.

Different reduction factors might be used if you were paying in before April 1995 or before April 2014. If you were a member of the Scheme before 1 October 2006, you may have some protection to your benefits under the 85 year rule. Therefore, it is best to use the pension calculator on your online My Pension account to work out how the reductions might affect you.

Possibly. You can ask your former employer to let you access your benefits from any age on ill health grounds. However, you must meet certain criteria to receive them.

The decision to award ill health retirement is for your former employer. They must consult with an approved doctor before making their decision. The doctor might not need to see you, but they will arrange a suitable time with you if they do.

If your employer decides to award your pension to you, we won’t apply reductions because of early access.

For more detailed information on the criteria that you must meet and the process to follow, please read drawing your deferred benefits on the grounds of ill health guide.

If you joined after 1 April 2008, then you won't have an automatic tax free lump sum. However, you can take up to 25 per cent of the overall value of your pension amount as a tax free lump sum. You must normally take all of your benefits at the same time.

You can choose to take your standard pension benefits, the maximum 25 per cent lump sum, or any amount in between.

For every £1 of pension you give up, you can get an extra £12 back as a lump sum which is tax free. The amounts may change if you have tax free cash from other pension schemes. It does not take account of any additional voluntary contributions (AVCs) you have with us, and you may be able to take some or all of your AVCs as tax free cash.

You can view both your standard and maximum lump sum figures via your MyPension account. Alternatively, you can work out your maximum lump sum figure by using the standard figures from your annual benefit statement and visiting the calculate your maximum lump sum page.

Yes. It will be reviewed in line with price rises in the same way as when it was on hold. The consumer prices index (CPI) is the index used to do this and pensions are increased annually each April. It is possible that some years there might be no increase due if prices have stayed the same. But your pension won’t go down if prices go down.

Yes. It will be reviewed in line with price rises in the same way as when it was on hold. The consumer prices index (CPI) is the index used to do this and pensions are increased annually each April. It is possible that some years there might be no increase due if prices have stayed the same. But your pension won’t go down if prices go down.

We can only begin to process your pension payments once we have received your completed forms and evidence of identity and address.

Once your payment has been processed by us, providing you have passed your chosen retirement date, we aim to pay your lump sum shortly afterwards.

Both your pension and lump sum payment will be delayed if you have made additional voluntary contributions (AVCs). Before we can process your benefits, Prudential must disinvest your AVC amount. This can take up to one month from the date that we have received your completed paperwork and notified Prudential (or one month from the date of retirement if this is a future date). Once Prudential have disinvested the amount, we can then proceed with the timescales as detailed above.