Yearly pension
Difference: £0 a year
Tax-free lump sum
Difference: £0 one-off
Take-home each month
Difference: £0 a month
Your two options, side by side
Because of the McCloud ruling, you get to choose which scheme covers the seven years between April 2015 and March 2022 — your original 1995 scheme, or the 2015 scheme. Everything before and after those seven years stays exactly as it is. You make the choice when you actually retire, not now.
Keep those years in 1995/2008
Your original scheme covers the remedy period
Move those years to 2015
The reformed scheme covers the remedy period
What the McCloud choice actually changes
Only seven years of your service are in question. Everything either side of them is fixed, whichever way you choose. Here is what those seven years are worth on each basis, at your chosen retirement age of 60.
Your 1995 section
Untouched by the choice. Stays in the 1995 section and is payable in full at 60.
Seven years you decide about
These years sit in the 1995 section by default. At retirement you can leave them there, or move them to the 2015 scheme.
Your 2015 scheme
Also untouched. Everyone builds up in the 2015 scheme now, and it is not payable in full until 67.
If those seven years stay in 1995/2008
a year, added to your 1995 section
tax-free lump sum, on top — the 1995 section pays one automatically
If those seven years move to 2015
a year, added to your 2015 scheme — a higher build-up rate
automatic lump sum — the 2015 scheme doesn't pay one
So on yearly income the two are close. The clear difference is the lump sum — £26,668 — and whether that matters more to you than income for life is a personal question, not a numbers one. That is the conversation to have with Dinesh.
What changes if you retire earlier or later
Retiring earlier means a smaller pension, because it has to be paid for more years. The shaded area is before age 55 — you can't normally take your NHS pension then.
Your pension is valued on 31 March each year, which is the scheme's year end. Because your birthday is in May, that date always falls about ten months after it — so age 55 here means 31 March 2028, when you were 55 years and 10 months old. The final figure is the exception: it is your 60th birthday, 15 May 2032, the date you have chosen to retire.
Where the money comes from
Your pension is built from two parts, and they behave differently. Your 1995 section can be taken in full at 60. Your 2015 section isn't due until 67, so taking it at 60 reduces it — you receive about 71p for every £1 of it. This breakdown was prepared at your chosen retirement age of 60.
Keep those years in 1995/2008
Yearly pension, before and after reductions
Move those years to 2015
Yearly pension, before and after reductions
What you've built up so far
This is the pension you have already earned, valued at each date, before any reduction for taking it early. It keeps growing while you keep working.
Your tax position
Every year, the government limits how much your pension can grow before a tax charge applies. Your allowance is larger than the standard £60,000 because you can carry forward what you didn't use in earlier years.
Across the last three years
Tax you asked the scheme to pay, with interest to retirement
Repaid by a small reduction to your pension
Arising in 2021/22 and 2022/23
The pay behind these figures
Your pension is worked out from your pensionable pay. This report assumes your pay drops when you move to Band 8D in 2028, and that pay and inflation then stay flat — which is why the figures are in today's money.
What this is based on — and what it isn't
Every figure on this page rests on the assumptions below. Change any one of them and the numbers change too.
Set to nil so figures are in today's money
Beyond the Band 8D change in 2028
From your Total Reward Statement
No lifetime allowance protection held
Not included: any pensions outside the NHS scheme, additional voluntary contributions, and any change to your hours or pay we haven't been told about. The figures assume no other income at the point you take your pension, so the monthly take-home is the NHS pension alone.
Please don't compare your figures with a colleague's. Unless they joined on exactly the same date, in the same section, and have never had a break, their numbers will be different from yours. That's precisely why we work from your own record rather than a general calculator.
These are estimates. NHS Pensions cannot give exact retirement figures until your final pay and service are known, and your Remediable Service Statement is the authoritative source for your McCloud options. This report does not constitute advice and should not be relied upon for your tax return.
Your summary
Written from your own figures, and it updates as you move the controls above.
Talk it through
Numbers on a screen only get you so far. If you'd like to understand what these options mean for your plans — and get a personal recommendation — book a conversation with Dinesh.