Police pension calculator

Most serving officers are in the Police Pension Scheme 2015, a Career Average Revalued Earnings (CARE) scheme. Unlike the older final-salary schemes, your pension is not based on your salary in your last year of service. Instead, you build up a slice of pension every single year, based on what you earned that year.

Building up your pension: 1/55.3 a year

Each year, you lock in a pension worth 1/55.3 of your pensionable pay for that year. A constable on £43,038, for example, earns about £778 of guaranteed annual pension from a single year of service. Do that for a full career and those slices add up to a substantial income. Overtime does not count — only your basic pensionable pay and certain pensionable allowances (such as London Weighting) do.

Revaluation: why older years are worth more than they look

Each year's slice does not sit still. While you remain an active member, your whole built-up pension is revalued every year by CPI inflation plus 1.25%. It is a bit like getting a guaranteed pay rise on money you have already set aside. Over a long career this compounding is significant — it is why the simple “years × pay ÷ 55.3” sum understates what you will actually receive. (Once you are drawing the pension, it still rises each year, but by CPI only.)

Normal pension age: linked to the State Pension

This is the part that catches officers out. Under PPS 2015, your normal pension age is your State Pension Age — currently 66, heading to 67 and then 68. That was one of the most significant and most resented changes from the PPS 1987 and 2006 schemes, where officers could retire in their fifties on a full pension. You can still draw your pension from age 55 (rising to 57 from April 2028), but taking it before your normal pension age means an actuarial reduction applied for life — because the pension has to stretch over more years. Since most officers want to retire well before their State Pension Age, this early reduction is the rule rather than the exception, and it is the single biggest reason a pension comes in lower than expected.

Lump sum: commutation at 12:1

PPS 2015 pays no automatic lump sum, but at retirement you can swap some annual pension for tax-free cash. The rate is £12 of lump sum for every £1 of annual pension you give up. HMRC limits the tax-free lump sum to 25% of the capital value of your benefits, which works out at roughly 4.28 times your annual pension. Many officers commute some pension to clear a mortgage or fund the years before other income kicks in — but it is a permanent trade, so it is worth taking regulated advice first.

Contributions — and why opting out rarely pays

You contribute between 12.88% and 14.22% of pensionable pay, depending on your band, and you get income tax relief on those contributions. It feels steep on the payslip. But your force contributes roughly 31% of pensionable pay on top, and the result is a guaranteed, inflation-protected income for life. Opting out throws away that employer contribution entirely, so for almost everyone it is a poor deal. The take-home effect of your contributions is shown live in the main pay calculator.

A note on accuracy: this calculator models PPS 2015 only and produces an estimate for guidance. If you have service in PPS 1987/2006, or are covered by the McCloud remedy, your real pension will be calculated across more than one set of rules. The early-retirement reduction shown is approximate. For an authoritative figure, request a projection from your force pension team and check your annual benefit statement.