What happens to your civil service pension if you leave comes down to qualifying service: two years or more and it stays in the scheme as a preserved pension; under two years and you are offered a refund of your own contributions, with a cash transfer sum as the alternative once you are past the first few months.

At two years or more, what you have built up stays in the scheme as a preserved pension, whether you resign or opt out. Below two years there is nothing to preserve, so the scheme offers a refund of your own contributions or a cash transfer sum instead. Your section (alpha, or classic, classic plus, premium and nuvos) changes the detail. Leaving a job is a natural time to go over everything you hold. A preserved civil service pension is one piece, and an FCA-authorised adviser, reached via the form on this page, will talk over by phone, free, how it sits beside your other savings.

What happens to my civil service pension if I leave?

Your qualifying serviceWhat the scheme gives you
Under one monthA refund of your contributions, less tax
One to three months, with no previous serviceA refund of your contributions, less tax
Over three months but under two yearsA choice between a refund and a cash transfer sum
Two years or moreA preserved pension, which can be transferred to an eligible scheme but not to a defined contribution one; no refund

That table follows the alpha guide, and the nuvos guide sets out the same three-month and two-year points. Service transferred in from another scheme counts, and so does a transfer in from a personal pension, which the alpha guide says lets a pension be preserved even with under two years' service. The sections below take each row in turn, then the reason you are leaving, coming back later, and keeping track of a pension you have left behind.

Two years or more: what a preserved pension means

The alpha guide says: "You will get a pension if you either have two or more years' qualifying service or have brought a transfer in from another pension arrangement." You do not have to change job to get one, because the pension is preserved when you resign and also when you opt out while staying employed. What is preserved is the pension built up to the date you leave, and in alpha it is then adjusted in line with prices each year. The nuvos guide says a preserved nuvos pension increases every year in line with inflation.

Once you have qualified, a refund is off the table. The guide's words are "As you have qualified for a pension, you cannot have a refund of your contributions."

If you were in the older Principal Civil Service Pension Scheme (classic, classic plus, premium or nuvos) before moving to alpha, the guide says you can end up with two preserved pensions, one for each. Their pension ages differ: the guide gives usually 60 for the older sections and 65 for nuvos. Claiming the two together or separately, and when, is worth mapping out before you leave.

Claiming a preserved pension early or late

The alpha guide gives its minimum pension age as currently 55, rising to 57 in 2028 for alpha members who have joined since 4 November 2021. Claim before your alpha Normal Pension Age and the pension is reduced for the longer period it is likely to be paid; the guide stresses that this reduction is permanent. Wait past it and an increase is added for each year you delay. The scheme asks for at least four months' notice before your first payment.

The nuvos guide puts it as a choice at any time from the 55th birthday, reduced if taken before pension age and increased if taken after the 65th birthday. Each older section has its own early-payment terms, which the adviser's call back, booked through the short form here, can cover for your service.

Civil service pension if you leave with under two years

Leave an alpha job before two years and the guide offers a choice of two options: a refund of your contributions less deductions, or a cash transfer sum to buy benefits within another pension arrangement. The guide is clear about what a refund covers: "It is only the money that you have paid in that will be refunded, not any contributions paid by your employer." Tax is deducted, and the amount is paid into the bank account you have given the scheme.

A cash transfer sum is the value of the notional pension you have built up. If you want it, you must return the form within three months saying so, and you and the receiving scheme complete discharge papers. Leave within three months of joining with no previous service and the transfer option disappears, leaving only the refund. For the rules on where a transfer can go, the civil service pension transfer out page has them.

Any added pension you bought is included in either route, and the higher contributions for an EPA option are reflected in a refund, while a transfer reflects the EPA portion of your pension. Your refund estimate arrives shortly after you leave. Where only a refund is on offer (the first two rows of the table), your employer processes it through the normal payroll.

Does the reason you leave change anything?

Resigning and opting out lead to the same place: preserved if you have two years, refund or transfer if not. For nuvos, the guide treats redundancy the same way: "Your employer will pay you compensation under the Civil Service Compensation Scheme for loss of employment. Your pension options will be the same as if you had resigned."

The exit-scheme factsheet adds three paths for someone leaving a voluntary exit or redundancy scheme. Below minimum pension age, or if you choose not to claim, the pension is preserved. Above it, you can take the pension at once on a reduced basis. Or you can use your compensation to buy out the reduction, and if it falls short you or your employer may be able to pay the rest. The detail sits on civil service early retirement.

Dismissal cases vary with the facts and your section, so ask about yours when the adviser rings after the form on this page.

Leave it deferred, or move it? What to weigh

The scheme's classic booklet calls someone in this position a deferred member: you have left, and the benefit waits. Moving it is limited. The alpha guide says that if you qualified for a preserved pension you cannot transfer it to a defined contribution or money purchase scheme, and the scheme's wider restriction is covered on the transfer page above. On defined benefit pensions in general, the FCA says: "The FCA and The Pensions Regulator (TPR) believe it's in most people's best interests to keep their DB pension." The deferred defined benefit pension page covers the general idea.

What you can weigh: how far your pension may have grown by prices, when you might want it, how it fits beside your State Pension and any other pots, and what a leaving date does to your family's benefits (see civil service pension on death).

Returning to a civil service job later

How the scheme treats you when you return depends on whether you kept benefits in alpha and how long you were away. If you took a refund or transferred out, you are treated as a new entrant. If you still hold a preserved pension, the guide says a break of five years or less is a qualifying break and the old pension is linked to the new service: it is cancelled and recalculated as if you had stayed in, with price adjustments. After a longer, disqualifying break the preserved pension stays as it is and you start a new, separate one.

For the older sections the classic booklet says of rejoining: "This will depend on the pension arrangements on offer at that time." And if you go back to a civil service employer after drawing a pension, it may be abated.

Keeping track of a pension you have left behind

A deferred pension can sit untouched for decades. The classic booklet tells deferred members to contact the scheme for a quote if they want to retire at a different age, and the scheme will otherwise write to you near normal retirement age. If you have lost the paperwork, GOV.UK's pension contact service helps find the scheme's details; the find a lost pension page explains how. You can also compare how the NHS handles leavers on what happens to my NHS pension if I leave.

Five things leavers often check

Do I get my money back if I resign after more than two years?

No. Having qualified for a pension, you cannot have a refund of your contributions. The pension is preserved instead.

Will tax come off a civil service pension refund?

Yes. The refund is of your own contributions after deductions for tax; your employer's contributions are not part of it. HMRC's pension schemes rates page sets the short service refund lump sum charge as 20% on the first £20,000 and 50% on any amount over £20,000.

Can I take my pension straight after I leave?

From the minimum pension age, which is 55 for alpha at present. Taking it before your normal pension age reduces it for life. The older sections have their own ages and reductions, so ask the scheme or an adviser which applies.

Could a later civil service job reduce my pension?

Possibly, if you are drawing a pension. The nuvos guide says it is abated if your pay and pension together come to more than your pensionable earnings in the twelve months before the pension started. Abatement does not apply if you take a job with an employer outside the civil service pension arrangements.

Does a personal pension transfer-in change the two-year rule?

For alpha and nuvos, yes. The guides say someone who has transferred in a personal pension is treated as having the service needed to preserve a pension, so no refund is offered.

Where to get your figures and free help

Whatever your section, the scheme's own pages and its administrator, MyCSP, are the first stop for your figures, and MoneyHelper gives free guidance on pensions too. Where a preserved pension has to fit around other pensions, tax and timing, book the free call back, whichever section you were in, by using the form on this page.

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