You must terminate your NHS employment in accordance with your employment contract or partnership agreement and you must not work in a pensionable NHS employment during the first 24 hours of your retirement.

• From 1 April 2023 in England, Wales and Scotland and from 1 April 2024 in Northern Ireland if you return to work after a break of 24 hours there are no further restrictions. I’m accessing the 2008 or 2015 scheme benefits
• You must terminate your NHS employment in accordance with your employment contract or partnership agreement and you must not work in the NHS during the first 24 hours of your retirement.
• You can return to work in a pensionable employment after a break of 24 hours and there is no restriction on the number of hours you can work.

Your benefits will not be paid until you take the required break.
The pension which is forfeited during the period of suspension is not paid as arrears once the pension is reinstated.

• Pensionable employment is extended by the period of untaken leave for which payment in lieu is made.
• The date your NHS employment contract is terminated may be different from the last day of your pensionable employment.
• The 24 hours break  will apply from your last day of pensionable employment.
• You must retire from pensionable employment and have your contract terminated before becoming entitled to a pension.

No - the regulations require that your contract has terminated.

If you retire on health grounds and return to work having taken the 24 hour break in employment you may resume pensionable NHS employment. . Since 1 April 2023 members in England, Wales and Scotland can resume pensionable service regardless of age however there are other factors which might affect your ill health pension.  The position is the same in Northern Ireland since 1 April 2024.

If you are drawing down between 20% and 100% of your benefits via draw down you are not required to resign from your NHS posts to access these partial retirement benefits. All 1995/2008 section benefits must be exhausted first before you are able to draw down 2015 section benefits. Draw down can be undertaken twice. On final retirement, you will need to resign from all NHS posts.

1995 section benefits can only be accessed this way from 1 October 2023 in England, Wales and Scotland. A consultation on this has yet to take place in Northern Ireland.

If you have more than one NHS employment and are made redundant over the age of 55 (the current minimum pension age which is due to increase to 57 on 6 April 2028), you can choose to access the pension solely from the role making you redundant, whilst continuing in pensionable service in your other roles.

You are not required to resign from the other roles in order to access your pension from the redundant role.

Those with benefits in the 1995 section with a minimum pension age in relation to those benefits of 50, who are made redundant between ages 50 and 55, can access 1995 section benefits only.

Having moved to the 2015 scheme on 1 April 2022 (once the McCloud remedy has been applied) should you have a continuous break in pensionable service of five years or more you lose the ‘final salary’ link.

You are not required to resign from NHS employment in order to receive the payment of 1995/2008 section benefits once you have had a break of five years or more.

Your pension benefits are payable from the day after completing five years continuous break in service once you have reached the relevant normal pension age for that section.

If you have been opted out for five years or more and have reached your minimum pension age you are able to access benefits without resigning from your NHS post. Benefits accessed before your normal pension age will be subject to an actuarial reduction.

If you are a retired former member of the 1995 section of the NHS pension scheme, you can join the 2015 scheme from 1 April 2023 onwards in England, Wales and Scotland if you are under age 75.

In Northern Ireland this is also the case but from 1 April 2024 onwards only.

If you are a retired former member of the 2008 section then you can rejoin the 2015 scheme provided that you have not reached age 75.

If you are a retired former member of the 2015 scheme, you can rejoin up to age 75 with no limits on years of membership.

Once you have accessed 1995 section benefits, payable with a final salary link, you can claim 2015 scheme benefits at the same time then rejoin the 2015 scheme or you can delay taking 2015 scheme benefits and rejoin the 2015 scheme when you return to NHS employment, after your 24 hour break.

Abatement has been permanently abolished in relation to MHOs (Mental Health Officers) in England and Wales and Northern Ireland since 1 April 2024 and in Scotland since 1 April 2025.

The restriction only continues to apply in limited circumstances including  if you retire on the grounds of permanent ill health or on the grounds of redundancy ‘in the interests of the efficiency of the service’.

The process by which your pension could be affected by your future NHS earnings is known as abatement.

In relation to CEA payments historically these were stopped on retirement or partial retirement however both the ACCEA and NHS employers have confirmed that from 1st April 2023, members with such awards who retire or partially retire will be able to retain their NCEAs/LCEAs as below:

NCEAs

The scheme rules have been changed to align with the introduction of flexible retirement and up to 100% drawdown of benefits to be introduced to the NHS Pension scheme as of 1st April 2023. NCEAs or NCIAs subject to transition arrangements will continue provided the eligibility criteria continue to be met, however the ACCEA reserve the right to request early re-application where there are significant changes to an award holder’s job plan as a result of any ‘retirement’ arrangements.

LCEAs

In the updated schedule 30, the following addition was made to local awards.

Schedule 30 Para 11

With effect from 1 April 2023, a consultant with a pre-2018 LCEA who retires, or partially retires, and returns to the same employer will retain their pre-2018 LCEA.

Following partial retirement discretionary points will continue to be payable in Scotland.

Continued scheme membership after retirement is now possible for all members under age 75 in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. With the removal of the Lifetime Allowance Charge and the increase to the standard Annual Allowance the need for members to opt out of membership for tax reasons should be much reduced.

The BMA has produced the pension contribution alternative reward policy which is a guide for members to use for the payment of contributions which employers would otherwise make towards their pension should they need to opt out for tax reasons.

Whilst the BMA is pressing for policies such as this to be mandatory, this is down to each employer and you may wish to pursue this with the assistance of an employment adviser.

GP partners are able to contractually stipulate what happens to the employer contribution on their return to non-pensionable re-employment after retirement.

If you work more than 16 hours per week in an NHS role in the first calendar month after the 24 hour break, and have accessed 1995 section benefits, your pension will be suspended until you work no more than16 hours per week for a full calendar month.

No, unless you are only contracted to work for 16 hours per week or less in your re-employment contract. It is your responsibility to provide evidence to demonstrate that you have not been contracted to work for more than 16 hours per week.

• You must work for no more than 16 hours in each week during the first calendar month. This is a weekly limit and not an average over the month
• You are not allowed, for example, to work for 32 hours one week and then take the next week off.
• The start of the week will differ depending on which day of the week you retire on - for example, if your last day of service is a Monday, your 24 hours break will be on Tuesday and ’your week‘ will be between Wednesday and Tuesday.
• You cannot use annual leave to work no more than 16 hours per week, unless you are only contracted to work for 16 hours per week.

I'm a secondary care doctor in the 1995 section

• If you are a secondary care doctor contributing to the 1995 section and have multiple NHS posts, it is possible to terminate some of your posts and remain working provided that the contract(s) retained total less than 16 hours a week.
• In this situation you do not need to take a break from the remaining posts of 16 hours a week or less and you can simply stop paying pension contributions for these employments and draw your retirement benefits.

I'm a GP in the 1995 section

• If you are a GP contributing to the 1995 section and also have an 'officer' NHS post, it is possible to terminate your GP posts and remain working in the 'officer' post if it is contracted for no more than 16 hours a week.
• In this situation you will need only to resign from all of your GP posts and can simply stop paying pension contributions for the officer employment(s). You cannot give up your officer post and reduce your GP commitments to 16 hours a week or less.
• If you have several GP commitments then they must all be resigned from in order to claim the pension.