Police pension age depends on your scheme: 50 with 25 years' service in the 1987 scheme, 55 in the 2006 scheme and 60 in the 2015 scheme, or from 55 with a reduction.
The age is set by the scheme your service sits in: the Police Pension Scheme 1987, the New Police Pension Scheme 2006, or the career average scheme that began on 1 April 2015. Many officers have service in more than one. This page covers England and Wales; Scotland and Northern Ireland have schemes of their own.
Your force's pension administrator holds the dates that apply to you. Pension Wise, the free, impartial service backed by government, is not built for these: per GOV.UK, it leaves out 'final salary' and 'career average' pensions. Lining up your police retirement age with State Pension and savings is a free call-back away from an FCA-authorised adviser. To ask, use the form on this page.
Police pension age at a glance, scheme by scheme
The Home Office's guide to the 2015 scheme includes a comparison table of the three schemes. This one condenses it, with the two older schemes' own guides alongside. The guides are Home Office documents published on GOV.UK (the 1987 and 2006 guides date from 2006 and 2009), so treat them as a map and let the administrator confirm the date for you.
| Scheme | Earliest pension and normal pension age | If you leave early (deferred pension) |
|---|---|---|
| 1987 (final salary) | From 50 with 25 years' pensionable service, or before 50 with 30 years; with less than 25 years' service, 55 for constables and sergeants and 60 in most other cases | Paid from 60, or from 50 if you left before 50 with at least 25 years |
| 2006 (final salary) | 55, all ranks | Paid from 65 if you leave before 55 |
| 2015 (career average) | Normal pension age 60; from 55 with a reduction | Paid from State Pension age; earlier with a reduction |
The 2015 guide's comparison table prints the 1987 line in full: "For 1987 Scheme from any age with 30 years' service, or from 50 with 25 years' service, or at 55 for all constables and sergeants with less than 25 years service; 55 for inspector to Chief. Supt in the Metropolitan Police with less than 25 years' service; 57 for Commander or Dep. Assistant Commissioner in the Metropolitan Police with less than 25 years' service; in all other cases at age 60." It gives the 2006 scheme's pension age as simply "55".
Police retirement at 50: the 1987 scheme
Age 50 is the 1987 scheme's early door, and it comes with a service test. The 1987 guide says that with 25 years' pensionable service you can retire on an ordinary pension paid at once from age 50, and that with 30 years' service you may retire with an immediate pension before 50. Officers who retire with fewer than 25 years can take a short service pension if they retire at what would have been the compulsory retirement age for their rank before the new ages came in on 1 October 2006.
The same guide says 30 years' service is needed for a maximum pension. So 50 belongs to older service: the 2006 guide's retirement age is 55, and the 2015 guide says you cannot retire with a pension under that scheme before 55 other than on ill-health grounds. Retiring on medical grounds follows separate rules, and ill-health retirement explains the general picture.
Police retirement at 55: the 2006 scheme
In the 2006 scheme the rule is simpler. Its guide says "You can retire as soon as you reach the age of 55", and that applies to every rank. An officer who leaves before 55 with at least two years' qualifying service is entitled to a deferred pension, which the guide says "will come into payment from age 65". The 2006 scheme's final salary pension builds at 1/70th of final pensionable pay for each year of service, up to a maximum of 35/70ths, so 35 years is the full length of that scheme. For the sums behind a monthly figure, how much police pension you get works through them.
The 2015 scheme: pension age 60, or from 55 with a reduction
For service in the 2015 scheme, whether you joined it in 2015 or moved into it later, the guide says "The Normal Pension Age (NPA) is 60" and "The Normal Minimum Pension Age (NMPA) is 55". The Public Service Pensions Act 2013, section 10, says the normal pension age of members of a police force under a scheme made under section 1 "must be 60", so the age is not a quirk of one guide.
Retiring between 55 and 60 is allowed, but the scheme pays for the extra years by cutting the pension. In the guide's words, if you retire with immediate payment after NMPA and before NPA, your 2015 Scheme benefits "will be actuarially reduced by reference to NPA". The Home Office's benefits leaflet puts the size of the cut at "roughly 5% for each year that you retire before 60", and adds that the actual reduction is based on actuarial calculations which are updated periodically. The Home Office also publishes Government Actuary's Department guidance on working out what it costs to buy out the early payment reduction, and your administrator can say whether that is open to you.
The 2015 guide says you can stay in the scheme as long as you wish, because there is no maximum period of service, and that continuing past NPA brings an actuarial uplift because the pension will be paid later. It also says you cannot retire on a 2015 pension before NMPA other than on ill-health grounds.
Retire at 55 on less, or wait for 60? Your other income decides that, and an FCA-authorised adviser could phone you without charge once you have sent this page's short form.
Joined before 2015: mixed service and the McCloud remedy
Most officers with older service now have more than one scheme, and each slice keeps its own age. The Home Office says that if you were in the 1987 scheme before joining the 2015 scheme, you can still retire at your 1987 voluntary retirement age, but "if you retire before age 60 your benefits in the PPS 15 will be reduced to reflect that you are taking them before age 60". For the 2006 scheme the same document says you can still retire from age 55, with a reduction in your 2015 benefits if you take them before 60. The 2015 guide adds that officers with 2006 service can reach those benefits at that scheme's normal pension age, which it gives as 55. Whether the scheme as a whole is worth staying in is weighed on is a police pension good.
The McCloud remedy, which lets eligible officers choose between old-scheme and 2015-scheme benefits for service between 1 April 2015 and 31 March 2022, is covered on the police pension remedy page. How a remedy choice meets your retirement date is on your remediable service statement or your administrator's quote.
Leaving before pension age: when a deferred police pension starts
Leaving the force does not lose the pension, but it moves the date. In the 1987 scheme a deferred pension is payable from 60, or from 50 if you leave before 50 with at least 25 years. The 2006 guide's deferred age is 65, and a deferred 2015 pension is paid at your State Pension age. The 1987 guide allows earlier payment only if you become permanently disabled from the ordinary duties of a police officer. The later two schemes let you ask for payment earlier at a cost: the 2006 guide says the reduction "might be expected to be of the order of 5% for each year, so that a deferred pension taken at age 60 might be reduced by 25%", and the 2015 guide says the reduction can be substantial and will be permanent. Your own State Pension age is set by when you were born (State Pension age explained).
Why police can retire at 55 while the minimum pension age rises to 57
The tax-law minimum age for taking any pension is rising from 55 to 57 on 6 April 2028, but police are on the other side of that change. Section 10 of the Finance Act 2022 rewrote the definition: for a "uniformed services pension scheme" the age is 55 from 6 April 2010, while other schemes move to 57 on and after 6 April 2028. It lists "members of a police force other than the Civil Nuclear Constabulary" among the people those schemes cover. The minimum pension age page and the page on taking a pension from 55 set out the general rule for private pensions.
Police pension age: questions officers ask
Do police officers have to retire at 60?
The 2015 guide sets no maximum period of service and says you may stay an active member as long as you wish, but that is about scheme membership rather than your rank's retirement age. The 1987 and 2006 guides, written in 2006 and 2009, say compulsory retirement ages from 1 October 2006 are 60 for constables, sergeants, inspectors and chief inspectors and 65 for higher ranks. Ask your force which applies to you now.
Can I take my police pension at 50?
Only in the 1987 scheme, and only with 25 years' pensionable service (or before 50 with 30 years). The 2006 and 2015 schemes start at 55, apart from ill-health retirement.
How long must I serve for a full police pension?
The 1987 guide says 30 years is needed for the maximum, and the 2006 guide's maximum is 35/70ths of final pay after 35 years. The 2015 scheme has no maximum service period, so a "full" pension there is whatever your years have built.
Does a police pension go up at 55?
Pensions in payment under the 2015 scheme are increased every year in line with CPI, according to its guide. For the 1987 scheme, its guide says "Pensions in payment are generally increased for inflation (though only from the age of 55 unless the officer is medically retired or other conditions satisfied)." Your administrator can say which increase rules apply to each part of your service.
Where does the 2015 scheme's pension age of 60 come from?
The age is written into legislation, not just a guide: the Public Service Pensions Act 2013 says it must be 60 for police members of a scheme under section 1 of that Act. The same section fixes the deferred pension age as your State Pension age, or 65 where that comes later, which is why leaving early moves your date back so far.
What is the police pension age in Scotland?
Different, because the Scottish scheme is separate. The 2015 guide says it applies only to England and Wales and that a different scheme is established for Scotland and Northern Ireland, so officers there need their own scheme's guide and administrator for the ages that apply to them.
Not sure which of the three ages is yours? The short form here starts a no-charge call-back that gives an FCA-authorised adviser time for your own years of service.