Retirement

Normal retirement

If you retire at the Fund's normal retirement age of 66 there is no early retirement reduction to your pension. The Fund's normal retirement age will track increases to State Pension Age, so will increase to 67 from April 2028 and 68 from April 2046.

Early retirement

The minimum early retirement age is currently 55 excluding ill-health retirement or, in limited circumstances, those with a protected right to retire earlier.

The Government has announced that the minimum early retirement age will increase to 57 from April 2028.

Late retirement

You can continue working past the normal retirement age of 66 and can continue to contribute to the Pension Fund provided you haven't reached the membership limit of 40 years.

Your pension will then normally be paid on the end of your employment unless you have discussed with your employer about flexible retirement.

You must draw your pension from the University of York Pension Fund before the age of 75.

Flexible retirement

Flexible retirement is available from the Fund.

Provided your employer agrees, then flexible retirement allows you greater flexibility in your employment and pension arrangements. In order to take flexible retirement, both your hours and pay must permanently reduce by at least 40%. You will be able to draw between 20% and 60% of the pension you have built up at the first flexible retirement date. The remainder can be taken at one subsequent date at which point your employment will fully end.

Ill health retirement

If you are diagnosed with a condition which means that you are permanently incapable of undertaking your job, or any other job which is reasonably comparably to your job, you may be eligible to receive your pension paid early on the grounds of ill health. If you are granted ill health retirement then your benefits can be paid on an unreduced basis. If you are under the age of 63.5 when you retire on ill health grounds then an enhancement can also be added to your pension.

Ill health retirements require agreement of both your employer, the University (if different from your employer) and the Trustee of the University of York Pension Fund. There is no minimum age you need to be for an ill health retirement but there are other qualifying criteria.

You will be required to undergo a medical assessment and your employer will need access to supporting medical information from your GP / consultant.

Less than 12 months life expectancy

If you have been diagnosed with a life expectancy of less than twelve months, then you may be eligible to receive a single lump sum of your benefits in the University of York Pension Fund. This payment could be larger than the death in service lump sum.

The payment is only payable to the member. If the member dies before the payment is approved, the entitlement to it is lost.

Cases where a member is diagnosed with a life expectancy of less than 12 months should be dealt with extremely urgently. If you or a member of your team has been diagnosed with a life expectancy of less than 12 months, the Pensions Team and HR Operations should be alerted immediately.

Scheme rules for non-active members

If you are receiving a pension from the Fund then the current version of the Rules does not usually apply to those benefits. Instead the version of the rules that were in force at the time of your retirement would usually apply to those benefits. Those rules are not published here, but are available for inspection, upon your written request.

Contact the Pensions Team

Financial advice

The decisions that you make at retirement will affect the income that you receive for the rest of your life, and members may wish to seek financial advice before deciding what they want to do with their pension and what benefit package they choose to take.

The Directors of the Pension Trust Company and administrators of the University of York Pension Fund are able to provide factual information regarding benefits accrued in the Fund but cannot provide financial advice. There are additional sources of general guidance available from the Pensions Advisory Service* and the Money Advice Service*.

* The University of York Pension Fund is not responsible for the content or accuracy of external websites

If you have paid into the Fund's money purchase AVC facility you may also be able to seek specific guidance on your options when you retire from the government operated Pension Wise service. Visit www.pensionwise.gov.uk for more information.

If you do not qualify to receive guidance from Pension Wise or require specific financial advice, you will need to seek this from an appropriately qualified financial adviser. The University of York Pension Fund is not able to recommend a specific adviser and does not accept any responsibility for the accuracy or appropriateness of any advice received or acted upon.