The normal minimum pension age (NMPA) is the minimum age at which most people can access their pension benefits unless they are retiring due to ill health.
This minimum age is set to increase from age 55 as it currently stands, to age 57 from 6 April 2028.
We have been waiting for guidance on how this will impact members of the Teachers' Pension Scheme and the Local Government Pension Scheme and I am pleased to report that there has been an update.
Any members with service in either scheme prior to 4 November 2021 will retain the right to take their pension benefits from the earliest age of 55 as their ‘Protected Pension Age’. This includes both Final Salary and Career Average Revalued Earnings (CARE) benefits.
There are some technicalities and policy details that are being worked through at the moment, but we welcome this positive update which will offer some clarity to those making future retirement plans.
For those of you with pension benefits outside of these schemes, you will need to check with each individual provider to establish whether you have a protected NMPA.
Generally speaking, it will apply to you if:
- you had money invested in a pension scheme (an occupational or a personal pension) on 3 November 2021
- the rules of that pension scheme gave you an unqualified right to take your pension savings from an earlier age than 57
- those rules were in place on 11 February 2021