Flexible retirement allows organisations and staff to be flexible about:
- The age at which staff retire.
- The length of time staff take to retire.
- The nature and pattern of work in the lead up to final retirement.
What flexibilities are available?
| Step down | Staff can step down to a different role, for example, to reduce the level of responsibility while remaining in NHS employment. |
| Wind down | Staff can wind down to retirement by remaining in their current post but reduce the number of hours or days they work. |
| Retire and return | Members who have reached the minimum pension age can choose to retire, claim their pension benefits and then return to NHS employment. |
| Draw down | Members can take part of their pension benefits and continue in NHS employment. |
| Late retirement enhancement | Members can retire later than their normal pension age and have their pension benefits increased. |
| Early retirement reduction buy out (ERRBO) | Members or employers can pay additional contributions to buy out the reduction applied to the member’s pension if they retire before their normal pension age. |
For a comprehensive list of these options, including when they are applicable, please see the retirement flexibilities factsheets for staff and employers on the Factsheets, Tools and Resources page.
You may also want to see the Scottish Public Pensions Agency Factsheet on ERRBO.
How can flexible retirement benefit my organisation?
- Help staff work to a raised retirement age by varying the nature or pattern of work in the lead-up to retirement.
- Assist succession planning by retaining valuable skills and experience which can be passed on to other staff.
- Increase the amount of bank staff available to cover high demand periods.
Things to consider
- Do your existing policies include retirement flexibilities?
- Does your workforce planning incorporate retirement flexibilities?
- How do you incorporate flexible retirement and retirement planning into appraisal discussions?
- How do you support staff who manage individuals or teams to have retirement planning discussions with their staff?
- How do you evaluate and manage requests for flexible retirement?
What are others doing?
See the information on the shared learning page from different organisations on how they use flexible retirement, the actions taken, the impact and what they plan to do next.
If you use flexible retirement in your organisation and want to share your experience, please get in touch.