Early retirement – effect on your pension :Cross Stitch – Pensions and retirement planning

If you retire early, or stop work due to redundancy, ill-health or other reasons, your State Pension and other pensions you’re entitled to may be affected. You need to know all your pension options to make sure you’ll have enough to live on in retirement.

Although you can retire at any age, you can only get your State Pension when you reach State Pension age.

The earliest you can receive a company or personal pension is 55 – but this depends on your pension scheme rules. If you’re retiring because of ill-health you may be able to take your benefits before this age.

If you have serious ill-health and your life expectancy is less than a year then you can retire at any age. You can take up to 100 per cent of your pension fund as a tax-free lump sum. If you’re married or have a civil partner, up to 50 per cent of the pension fund may be retained by the scheme. This will be used to provide for a survivor’s pension.

Changes to State Pension age

The State Pension age is increasing. To find out more see ‘Calculating your State Pension age’.

If you’re a member of a personal pension, stakeholder pension or occupational (company) money purchase scheme, the main points to remember are:

you’ve had fewer years to pay in, so your pension fund will be smaller
your pension fund will need to provide you with an income over a longer period, so the pension you get will be smaller

If you started paying into your pension at age 35 with a life expectancy of 85 then:

if you retire at 55 the fund built up over 20 years must last 30 years
if you retire at 65 the fund built up over 30 years must last 20 years

If you’re retiring early due to an illness that’s likely to effect your life expectancy, then some providers may boost your pension.

With these schemes the pension you get when you retire is usually based on a fraction of your salary. This fraction is then multiplied by the number of years you were a member of the scheme. So if you’re considering early retirement you’ll probably receive a smaller pension.

If you started paying into your pension at 35 and the pension is based on 1/80 of your final salary, then:

retiring at 55 would give 20/80 of final salary
retiring at 65 would give 30/80 of final salary

Many schemes also reduce the annual amount of pension they pay if you take payments before the scheme’s normal retirement age. This takes into account your pension is being paid for a longer period.

Example

The pension scheme that Michael is a member of has a normal retirement age of 60. He retires at age 58 having built up a pension which is 35/80ths of his final salary. The pension scheme reduces the annual rate of pension by 5 per cent for each year if a pension is taken early. This means that Michael’s pension will be reduced by ten per cent because it is paid two years early.

When looking at company pensions, remember that:

your company scheme may not allow you to take your pension before the normal retirement age of the scheme
if you retire early through ill-health there may be special provisions in the scheme rules that allow for the pension to be enhanced
if you’re made redundant with a pension, you could delay drawing it and let it build up – compare any special early retirement deal with all the alternatives
if you hope to find work again, check the rules about transferring your old pension to a new employer’s pension scheme – contact your pension scheme administrator
if you’ve had several jobs, you’ll need details of all your pension rights

These are complicated points and you may benefit from getting independent advice.