Any member aged over 55 who has left pensionable service or an ex-spouse participant aged over 55 may apply to receive their pension and lump sum benefits early (before NRA) in accordance with Rule 5.20 and Rule 14.09A respectively of the Schemes.

Some members may have the right to apply for early payment of benefits from age 50.

The benefits are reduced to reflect the fact that they will be paid earlier and for longer.

The factors needed to calculate the actuarially reduced benefits for members are provided in a single table. Different factors for members with NPA60 or NPA65 are provided in separate columns. There is no additional adjustment which applies between age 50 and 55 as this is included within the NPA specific factors.

The formula below sets out how to reduce the member's pension on early retirement for all members except for those described at the end of this section below.

Early retirement pension = Unreduced pension x Factor

Where;

Unreduced pension is the member's pension at retirement.

Factor is the factor from the appropriate column of Table 1002 in the Factor Tables section according to the member's period until NRA. The factors should be interpolated to reflect this period to the nearest month.

Members accrue an automatic lump sum alongside their pension. This should be reduced as follows:

Early retirement lump sum = Unreduced lump sum x Factor

Where;

Unreduced lump sum is the member's lump sum at retirement.

Factor is the factor from the appropriate column of Table 1002 in the Factor Tables section according to the member's period until NRA. The factors should be interpolated to reflect this period to the nearest month (i.e. the same factor that was applied to the member's pension).

The pension payable to the member's spouse on their death is not reduced as a result of their early retirement.

These factors may be used to calculate early retirement pensions and lump sums for members who retire between ages 50 and 55. However, the factors only apply to members under age 55 provided the pension increases they will receive at 55 relate only to the period between early retirement and reaching age 55. Any cases where members will also receive pension increases at age 55 in respect of a period before their retirement should be referred to GAD. For example, this may occur if the year of reckonable service used to calculate the member's Pensionable Final Earnings (PFE) does not end on the member's last day of service, leading to accrued deferred pension increases in respect of the period between the end of the year of reckonable service used to calculate PFE and the date of early retirement.

For the purpose of this guidance, an optant's NRA is 60. However, the payments required from the optant's employer should be adjusted when an optant takes early retirement. Such cases should be referred to GAD.