When can I take my NHS 2015 pension?

In full at your normal pension age, which is your State Pension age or 65 if that is later. From the minimum pension age (55; 57 from April 2028 unless you have a protected pension age) you can take it early, reduced by the scheme's actuarial factors for each year early.

How much tax-free cash can I take from the NHS 2015 Scheme?

There is no automatic lump sum. 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.

NHS pension calculator: the 2015 Scheme in today's money

Q: How is the NHS 2015 pension worked out?

Each year adds 1/54th of that year's pensionable pay. While you remain a member, the total is revalued every April in line with prices plus 1.5%, so in today's money it grows about 1.5% a year on top of what you add; after you leave it rises in line with prices. Someone on £38,000 adds about £700 a year of pension for each year worked.

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

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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 68, today's money	£33,504 a year
Of which still to be earned	£19,704
Revaluation above inflation	£7,800
Tax-free cash, at most	£134,373, leaving £22,306 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 scheme year you earn 1/54th of your pensionable pay as pension. While you are in the scheme, everything built up so far is revalued each April by the rate HM Treasury sets in line with prices plus 1.5%, so in today's money it grows about 1.5% a year on top of what you add: the same basis as the projection on your statement, which assumes your pay stays the same and 1.5% a year. After you leave it is increased in line with prices alone (Pensions Increase), so it keeps its value but stops growing in real terms. It is a career-average scheme: a year on lower pay, part-time hours or a break adds less, but never reduces what is already built up. You need two years in the scheme to qualify for a pension. This is the scheme for England and Wales; Scotland and Northern Ireland run their own NHS schemes.

Your normal pension age

Your normal pension age is your State Pension age, or 65 if that is later, and it moves if your State Pension age changes: 67 for most people working today and 68 for younger people, under the law as it stands. The calculator works it out from your age. Taken after it, the pension is increased for late payment, and you can keep building it up until 75.

Taking it early, and tax-free cash

The minimum pension age is 55, rising to 57 on 6 April 2028 except for members with a protected pension age: those who, before 4 November 2021, had the right to take their pension at 55. From the minimum pension age you can take it early, reduced for each year before your normal pension age by the scheme's actuarial early retirement factors, for life. The calculator uses one rate a year as an estimate; the scheme's own factors, which vary with your age and how early you go, 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 1995 or 2008 Section

If you were in the 1995 or 2008 Section on or before 31 March 2012 and worked in the scheme between 1 April 2015 and 31 March 2022, the McCloud remedy treats that period's service as service in your older section and lets you choose, when you take your pension, which benefits to have for it. Your annual benefit statement shows the options; this calculator covers career-average 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

NHS Business Services Authority, Applying for your pension.
NHS Business Services Authority, Understanding your statement: future pension projection.
NHS Business Services Authority, 2015 Scheme member guide (May 2024).
GOV.UK, State Pension age; HMRC, Increasing normal minimum pension age; HMRC, PTM063240: the pension commencement lump sum's permitted maximum.