Early retirement

You have the right to retire early at your own choice from the age of 55. This may sound like an interesting opportunity, but be very careful. Because you are choosing to draw your benefits early, they will normally be reduced by a percentage to take account of the fact that we are paying them for longer. Once registered for the Member Self Service system, you can run a personalized calculation to find out what you may get should you choose to take your benefits from 55. Use the tab on the homepage to get started.

There are also other reasons for retirement. Futher information can be found on the different types of retirement: 

What reduction will I face?

It depends how far off normal pension age you are choosing to retire. Remember this is 65 for any pre April 2014 benefits, and 65 (or your State pension age if later) for your benefits from April 2014.

By how much will my benefits be reduced?

How much your benefits are reduced depends on how early you retire.

Number of years paid earlyPension reductionLump sum (for membership to 31 March 2008)
0 0% 0.0%
1 4.9% 1.7%
2 9.3% 3.3%
3 13.5% 4.9%
4 17.4% 6.5%
5 20.9% 8.1%
6 24.3% 9.6%
7 27.4% 11.1%
8 30.3% 12.6%
9 33.0% 14.1%
10 35.6% 15.5%
11 39.5% N/A
12 41.8% N/A
13 43.9% N/A

This table shows how your pension will reduce if you retire before your normal retirement age. 

What about the 85 rule?

This is a form of protection from early retirement reductions for members who joined before 2006 and have long service. But it generally does not apply to this form of early retirement, unless your employer 'switches it back on'.

Please note: if you were in the LGPS before 1 April 2014 your benefits built up before that date will have a different normal pension age, which for most members is age 65.