What is your combined NHS pension worth across the 1995, 2008 and 2015 schemes?
The NHS Pension Scheme has three sections with different normal pension ages and different accrual methods, and a long-serving member usually holds benefits in more than one. They do not become payable at the same age, which is the fact that makes an NHS retirement date a set of decisions rather than one.
- 1995 section: final salary, normal pension age 60, with an automatic lump sum.
- 2008 section: final salary, normal pension age 65, lump sum by commutation.
- 2015 scheme: career average, normal pension age equal to your State Pension age.
- The consequence: benefits from different sections become payable at different ages.
01 Three sections, three ages
The 1995 section is a final salary arrangement with a normal pension age of 60 and an automatic tax-free lump sum of three times the annual pension. The 2008 section is also final salary, with a normal pension age of 65 and no automatic lump sum — cash is taken by commuting pension instead.
The 2015 scheme is career average revalued earnings, with a normal pension age equal to your State Pension age. Benefits build on the earnings of each year rather than on a final salary, and are revalued annually while you remain in service.
All active members moved into the 2015 scheme, so anyone with long service holds benefits in more than one section. Those benefits are separate entitlements with separate rules, even though they appear on one statement.
Shows: the annual pension from career average accrual over a period of service at a given pensionable pay. Ignores: revaluation, the final salary sections, the remedy choice, and any early retirement reduction.
On the defaults above, the worked example shows £10,667 a year. That is the career average element alone; benefits in the 1995 or 2008 sections sit on top and become payable at their own normal pension age.
Source: NHS Pensions
02 Why the dates do not line up
Taking a 1995 section pension at 60 while the 2015 benefits are not payable until State Pension age creates a gap of six or seven years in which one pension is in payment and the other is not. Taking the 2015 benefits early attracts an actuarial reduction, exactly as any early defined benefit payment does.
That produces a genuine planning question rather than an administrative one: whether to take the older section at its own normal pension age and leave the newer one, or to take both at once and accept a reduction on one of them.
Partial retirement arrangements allow members to draw some benefits while continuing to work and accrue in the 2015 scheme, which is often a better answer than either extreme.
Source: NHS Pensions member hub
03 The remedy sitting underneath
Members who were in service across the period from April 2015 to March 2022 are affected by the public service pensions remedy, which gives eligible members a choice about which scheme's benefits apply for those years. The choice is normally made at retirement, when the figures are known.
That choice is not a formality: the two options can differ materially depending on service, earnings profile and retirement age, and it is one of the few genuinely valuable pieces of scheme-specific advice available to an NHS member.
Until it is made, statements may show benefits on a provisional basis. Understanding what the remedy does before reading a statement is the difference between a confusing number and a useful one.
Source: Public Service Pensions and Judicial Offices Act 2022
The single most useful thing an NHS member can know is that their pension is not one pension. Three sections, three normal pension ages, and a remedy choice sitting underneath the middle seven years of it. That is why a retirement date is a set of decisions rather than a date — you can take the 1995 benefits at 60 and leave the 2015 ones, or take both and accept a reduction, or use partial retirement and keep accruing. Get a scheme estimate showing each section separately before deciding anything, because a single combined figure hides the whole question.
FAQ
Why do I have benefits in more than one section?
Because active members were moved into the 2015 scheme while retaining the benefits already built up in the 1995 or 2008 sections. Those earlier benefits keep their own rules and their own normal pension age.
Can I take one section and not the others?
Yes. The sections have different normal pension ages, so the 1995 benefits can be taken at 60 while the 2015 benefits are left until later. Taking the later benefits early attracts an actuarial reduction.
What is the remedy choice?
Members in service across April 2015 to March 2022 can choose which scheme's benefits apply for those years, normally at retirement when the figures are known. The two options can differ materially, so it is worth understanding before reading a statement.
Sources
Regulator references
- NHS Pensions · NHS Business Services Authority · 2025The administrator's own statement of the 1995, 2008 and 2015 scheme rules.Last verified: 2026-09-07
- NHS Pensions member hub · NHS Business Services Authority · 2025Member-facing guidance on retirement options and how the schemes interact.Last verified: 2026-09-07
- Public Service Pensions and Judicial Offices Act 2022 · The National Archives · 2022The statute that puts the McCloud remedy into effect across the public service schemes.Last verified: 2026-09-07
Calculator unit tests · the assertions this page's worked example is checked against, and their last result
Changelog
- 2026-09-07 — initial publish (new format)
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Jordan Reeves
Founder of Talk Through Wealth. A software engineer for over a decade before turning to retirement planning, Jordan built the projection engine after watching family members get fragmented, country-by-country advice that never reconciled. He writes about retirement the way the engine computes it: month-by-month, lifetime-long, and skeptical of any rule of thumb that hasn't been run through the math.