How is the 2015 firefighters' pension worked out?

Each year adds 1/59.7th of that year's pensionable pay. While you serve, the total is revalued each year in line with average weekly earnings; after you leave it rises in line with prices. A firefighter on £36,000 adds about £603 a year of pension for each year served.

When can I take my 2015 firefighters' pension?

In full at 60. From 55 you can take it early, reduced for each year before 60. If you leave before 55 your pension is deferred to your State Pension age.

How much tax-free cash can I take from the firefighters' pension?

You can give up £1 a year of pension for £12 of tax-free cash, up to about 4.3 times the pension, which leaves about 64% of it as income.

Firefighters' pension calculator: the 2015 scheme in today's money

What your Firefighters' Pension Scheme 2015 pension could be at 60, or earlier, in today's money: from the pension on your annual benefit statement, your pay and the years you still have to serve, with the tax-free cash it could buy. Then add it to your plan in one step. Your figures never leave your browser.

Loading the calculator… (requires JavaScript; your figures never leave your browser)

Worked example

Computed when this page was built by the same engine that runs the calculator above, so the figures below and the live tool can never disagree. Change any input above to see your own.

Inputs
Age	40
Pension built up so far	£6,000 a year
Pensionable pay	£38,000
Pay rises	2.5% a year (inflation 2.5%)

Results
Pension at 60, today's money	£18,730 a year
Of which still to be earned	£12,730
Revaluation above inflation	£0
Tax-free cash, at most	£80,273, leaving £12,041 a year

The next question

When does taking it early break even? →Defined benefit early retirement calculator

Or answer it with everything else: the full Hundred Summers plan connects your pay, pensions, savings, property, tax and spending year by year, and stress-tests them across 500 simulated market histories.

Read the guide

What a defined benefit pension is actually worth →
NHS, teachers, civil service, old company schemes: why £10,000/yr of final-salary pension is worth more than most people's entire pension pot, how to compare added-pension offers, and why transferring out is almost always wrong.

How it builds up

Each year you earn 1/59.7th of your pensionable pay as pension. While you serve, everything built up so far is revalued each year in line with average weekly earnings: when earnings grow faster than prices it grows in today's money too. The calculator asks how fast you expect earnings to grow, and starts cautiously at the same rate as prices. After you leave it is increased in line with prices alone. This is the scheme for England; Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland run their own.

Your normal pension age

The scheme's normal pension age is 60. If you leave before 55, your pension is deferred and paid from your State Pension age instead, so the calculator uses that age when you set an earlier leaving age.

Taking it early, and tax-free cash

From 55 you can take your pension before 60, reduced for each year early by the scheme's actuarial factors, for life. The calculator uses one rate a year as an estimate; the scheme's own factors are the authority. There is no automatic lump sum: you can give up £1 a year of pension for £12 of tax-free cash, up to the most the tax rules allow, about 4.3 times the pension, which leaves about 64% of it as income.

If you were in the 1992 or 2006 scheme

If you were in the 1992 or 2006 scheme on 31 March 2012 and served between 1 April 2015 and 31 March 2022, the McCloud remedy lets you choose which scheme's benefits to have for that period. Your statement is the authority; this calculator covers 2015 scheme benefits only.

Into your plan

One pension is only part of the picture. Add this pension to my plan opens Hundred Summers with it ready to add, in today's money from the age you choose, to be projected with your State Pension, savings, spending and tax year by year. The defined benefit early retirement calculator shows when taking it early breaks even, and the tax-free lump sum calculator what the cash costs in income.

Education, not advice. An estimate in today's money from the scheme's published rules, before tax: it leaves out added pension, partial and late retirement, and the scheme's exact early retirement factors. Your annual benefit statement and the scheme's own guidance are the authority. For a personal recommendation speak to an FCA-regulated financial adviser; free guidance is available from MoneyHelper.

Sources

Local Government Association, Induction to FPS 2015 (scheme administrators' training slides).
Home Office, Firefighters' pensions: member contribution structure (revaluation by average weekly earnings).
HM Treasury, Public service pension reforms (normal pension ages).
GOV.UK, State Pension age; HMRC, Increasing normal minimum pension age; HMRC, PTM063240: the pension commencement lump sum's permitted maximum.