You can claim your deferred pension benefits at any time between age 55 and 75.
We pay your deferred benefits from your normal pension age unless you decide to take them earlier at a reduced rate, or later at an enhanced rate. We will send you a retirement pack just before your normal pension age. The pack will include a form that you need to fill in and return so we can pay your deferred benefits.
Your normal pension age is the age you can retire and take the pension benefits you have built up in full. For any pension benefits you build up before April 2014 there’s a protected normal pension age of 65 (unless you’re one of a very small number of members with an earlier protected age of 60). The protection means that if you take your pension benefits at your protected normal pension age, the pension benefits you built up before 1 April 2014 will be paid in full.
For the pension you build up from 1 April 2014, your normal pension age is the same as your state pension age (but with a minimum of age 65).
Any future changes to state pension age will mean that your normal pension age for the part of your deferred benefits you build up from 1 April 2014 will also change. However, if you were in the scheme before 1 April 2014, the protected normal pension age for the part of the deferred benefits you built up before 1 April 2014 will not change.
If you have paid into an AVC in the past please read about the options you have when you decide to start receiving your benefits here.
Are deferred benefits inflation proofed?
Deferred benefits keep their value while they’re with us because we adjust them every year in line with the Consumer Prices Index.
You’ll be able to see how your deferred benefits are changing on your statement each year. Your statement will show you
- the value of your benefits at the time you left the scheme, and
- the current value of your benefits, including cost-of-living increases that we add each April.
