Police pension calculator

The Police Pension Scheme 2015 is a Career Average Revalued Earnings (CARE) scheme. Each year you build up a pension worth 1/55.3 of that year's actual pensionable pay (including pensionable London Weighting of £3,260/yr for Met and City of London officers). Every year you remain in active service, your built-up pension is revalued by CPI plus 1.25%. At retirement, all those revalued annual chunks are added together to give your annual pension.

For serving (active) members of PPS 2015, normal pension age is 60 — set by statute under section 10(2) of the Public Service Pensions Act 2013. You can draw a reduced pension directly from active service from age 55 (uniformed services are exempt from the April 2028 rise to 57) using GAD Table A reductions: 4.8% at 59, 9.3% at 58, 13.4% at 57, 17.3% at 56, and 20.9% at 55. However, if you leave the police before age 55, you become a deferred member whose normal pension age is State Pension Age (66–68), and claiming early at 55 applies GAD Table B — a 45.8% reduction (SPA 67) or 48.0% reduction (SPA 68).

Yes — serving police officers can retire and draw their PPS 2015 pension from age 55. Under the official Government Actuary's Department (GAD) Table A factors for active members (NPA 60), the reduction is non-linear: 0% at age 60 (×1.000), 4.8% at age 59 (×0.952), 9.3% at age 58 (×0.907), 13.4% at age 57 (×0.866), 17.3% at age 56 (×0.827), and 20.9% at age 55 (×0.791). If instead you resign before 55 and claim a deferred pension early at 55, GAD Table B measures the reduction from your State Pension Age (67 or 68), reducing the pension by 45.8% to 48.0%.

PPS 2015 has no automatic lump sum, but you can commute (give up) £1 of annual pension for £12 of tax-free cash (12:1 commutation factor). Under HMRC rules, the maximum scheme lump sum is (30/7) × your annual pension after any early retirement reduction (roughly 4.29× your pension, leaving 9/14 ≈ 64.29% residual annual pension), capped at the HMRC Lump Sum Allowance (LSA) of £268,275 under the Finance Act 2024. The £268,275 cap binds whenever your annual pension exceeds £62,597.50. Because £12 of tax-free cash replaces £1/yr of gross pension, the gross break-even period is 12 years — or 15 years net after 20% basic-rate tax (20 years at 40% higher-rate tax).

You pay 0% National Insurance and 0% pension contributions on your police pension in retirement, regardless of whether you retire at 55 or 60. You only pay Income Tax on pension income above the £12,570 Personal Allowance (using England, Wales & NI 20%/40%/45% bands or Scotland's 6-band system). Because both the ~13.88% member contribution and 8% National Insurance stop when you retire, your net monthly pension goes much further than the same gross salary did while serving.

Overtime, London Allowance (£6,819), South East Allowance, Detective Allowance and PSNI NITA are not pensionable under PPS 2015. However, Metropolitan and City of London Weighting (£3,260/yr from September 2026) IS pensionable and counts towards your 1/55.3 CARE accrual. For part-time officers under PPS 2015, both your member contribution tier (12.88% up to £37,035, 13.88% up to £79,587, 14.22% above £79,587) and your 1/55.3 pension accrual are assessed on your actual pro-rated pensionable pay (not full-time equivalent pay — so a 0.8 FTE Constable on PP5 whose pro-rated pay drops below £37,035 pays the lower 12.88% Tier 1 rate).

For almost everyone, yes. You contribute between 12.88% and 14.22% of pensionable pay in E&W/NI (or 13.7% flat in Scotland), with full income tax relief via net pay arrangement, and your force contributes 35.3% on top (38.7% in Scotland) — a guaranteed, inflation-protected income for life that is extremely difficult to replicate privately.

30 years in PPS 2015 builds an unreduced annual pension of roughly 65% of your career-average pensionable pay in today's money, payable in full at age 60 for serving officers. For an officer averaging £46,000 of pensionable pay, that is around £30,000/yr gross (about £2,210/mo net after basic-rate tax and 0% NI). Drawing that £30,000 pot at age 55 from active service applies the GAD Table A factor of 0.791 (-20.9%), giving £23,730/yr gross (~£1,785/mo net).

Use the interactive commutation slider in the calculator above to choose between 0% and 100% of your maximum permitted tax-free lump sum. At 100%, an officer retiring on £20,000/yr after any early reduction can commute up to £85,714 tax-free cash ((30/7) × £20,000, well within the £268,275 HMRC Lump Sum Allowance) and receive a residual pension of £12,857/yr (£1,067/mo net after tax).

It uses the statutory 1/55.3 CARE accrual formula, CPI + 1.25% in-service revaluation, official GAD Table A (active) and Table B (deferred) early retirement factors, the £268,275 HMRC Lump Sum Allowance, and 2026/27 UK and Scottish Income Tax bands. For an exact personal baseline, enter the accrued pension from your latest Annual Benefit Statement under Assumptions.