Your choices

If you’re planning on retiring soon, it’s a good idea to take some time to understand your pension entitlement and ensure that you have enough money to enjoy your retirement.

Even if you’re an active member and receive a benefit statement each year, we recommend requesting a retirement quote before you make your final decision. You can use the pension modeller to get an illustration of what your pension could be. Once you have run a calculation you can then contact the Scheme administrator  for a full pension quote including the Pension Increase Exchange (PIE) option, if applicable. XPS will then upload the full quote to your personal account for you to access. When you approach retirement, there are a number of options that you’ll need to consider:

• Taking your pension. Do you want to draw your pension when you retire from the Company or do you want to defer it until a later date?
• Will you want to take some tax-free cash? You have the option to take your full pension or give up part of your pension (up to 25%) for a tax-free cash lump sum. This is known as a Pension Commencement Lump Sum (PCLS).
• How do you want to take any supplement you have accrued? The supplement was set up to bridge the gap between retiring at age 60 and State Pension Age. Please see the supplement guide which explains your options.
• Do you want to take the Pension Increase Exchange (PIE) option?  PIE is a one-off option for you to exchange some of your future pension increases for a higher initial annual pension with reduced inflation protection.
• Taking your AVCs. You can choose to take your AVCs as part of your lump sum, use them to provide an income through an annuity or drawdown, or you can leave them invested and take them at a later date.