The Finance Act 2022 will increase the normal minimum pension age (NMPA) for pension schemes from 55 to 57 on 6 April 2028. The Act received Royal Assent in February 2022.
The NMPA is the earliest age* at which a pension scheme member can claim their pension benefits. However, despite the increase to the NMPA, the Finance Act 2022 allows for members to retain the old NMPA of 55, provided that:
- The rules of the pension scheme allowed for a member to take payment of their benefits from age 55, without their employer’s consent, and
- The member was a contributing or deferred member of the pension scheme before 4 November 2021
In the case of the LGPS, a person who was a contributing or deferred member of the Scheme before 4 November 2021 would meet the above criteria to be allowed to retain the ‘old’ NMPA of 55. However, it’s also understood that this protection needs to be written into the Scheme’s rules, and it’s unclear whether the Government plan to do this for the LGPS.
*This doesn’t apply to some historic protections across pension schemes, such as the uniformed services, where some members can retire earlier than the NMPA pension. It also doesn’t apply to members retiring on ill health, where they can retire from any age.
We'll update our website news feed when we have any further updates on this, but members should recognise this significant change when going about their retirement planning.