Returning to work after NHS retirement

You can retire from the NHS, take your pension and go back to NHS work. Since 1 April 2023 the old 16-hour rule no longer limits how much you can work, and retired members of the 1995 Section can now build new benefits in the 2015 Scheme. What can still bite is abatement, where earnings over a margin reduce your annual pension. Whether it applies depends on how and when you retired.

What changed on 1 April 2023

Before that date, members who had retired and taken 1995 Section benefits could not build further benefits in the 2015 Scheme. From 1 April 2023, if you return to NHS work you can join the 2015 Scheme and add more pension. NHS Pensions says your employer must tell eligible staff, but does not have to enrol them automatically. If you join you may be able to transfer benefits from another pension arrangement within 12 months of becoming eligible, and before normal pension age.

The 16-hour rule has also gone. NHS England says you can work as many hours as you choose, provided you have had a break of at least 24 hours from your previous job.

Retire and rejoin

On the retire and rejoin route you retire, take your pension and come back after a short break, re-joining the scheme. NHS England says there is no abatement, so payments are not reduced or stopped, and you can re-join under 75 even with 45 years’ service. It adds that you may not be able to return to the same role, which is worth raising with your manager early.

This differs from partial retirement, where you draw your pension without leaving the job and your pay must fall by at least 10%.

Abatement

NHS Pensions defines abatement like this: if you go over an earnings margin, the annual pension will be reduced. The margin relates to your pay before you retired. The same page lists who is outside it. From 1 April 2023 abatement does not apply to:

• members with Special Class status
• members with Mental Health Officer status
• anyone who claims age retirement benefits before age 60

Their pensions are not reduced if they return to NHS work or increase their hours. Two further groups are not affected: members who retired before normal pension age on or after 1 October 2011 and receive redundancy benefits, and members who took early retirement with an actuarial reduction. Other early retirement, including retirement in the interest of efficiency of the service, may affect your pension.

If you are over normal pension age, going back will not affect your pension at all. The normal pension age guide lists the ages for each section.

NHS Pensions does not publish the margin on this page, so ask for yours before you accept a role or extra hours. The early retirement guide explains how reductions and early retirement work across schemes.

What you must do when you go back

Tell your new employer that you receive NHS Pension Scheme benefits. Tell NHS Pensions that you have returned to NHS employment, using the pensioner re-employment form.

A worked example

Say you retired at 58 from the 1995 Section with special class status, took your pension, and now want to work three days a week on a fixed-term contract at your old trust. Since 1 April 2023 abatement does not apply to members with that status, so earning more does not reduce your pension. A colleague with the same section who claimed age retirement benefits at 59 is also outside abatement, because the exemption covers anyone claiming age retirement benefits before 60. Anyone who has reached normal pension age is unaffected too, whatever their section.

These examples only show how the exemptions are worded. Your retirement type is on your award letter, and NHS Pensions can confirm which rules apply.

Bank shifts and your own figures

The rules above concern NHS employment. In partial retirement, NHS Pensions says bank work is non-pensionable only if you opt out of the scheme for the bank contract, so ask how bank shifts are treated in your case. For the details of your own pay and hours, your employer’s pensions team and NHS Pensions can give you figures, and the NHS Pension Scheme guide explains the wider rules.