Once you’ve left your employment, you can take your pension benefits from age 55, without your employer’s (or former employer’s) consent; this applies to all members, regardless of when you stopped contributing to the LGPS.
Please note your pension will be reduced as it’s being paid earlier, and potentially for much longer,
For more in depth information and to see the early retirement factors, see page 3 of our ‘
When can I take my pension?’ factsheet. You can also visit our ‘
Retiring early’ page.
85 Year rule
If you were a contributing member of the Scheme at any point between 1 April 1998 and
30 September 2006, you may be entitled to protection under the ’85 year rule’.
This means that your benefits could be paid earlier than your NPA, with lesser or no reductions for retiring early.
The 85 year rule is where we take your age and qualifying years of service in the Scheme, and if it comes to 85 or over at the point you wish to take your benefits, and you're aged over 60, it means you can take some of your benefits unreduced at that point. If you’re below age 60, the early payment reductions applied to some of your benefits will be calculated to age 60 and not your NPA.
Use our ’
85 Year rule’ checker tool to see if this applies to you.