At Retirement - National Grid UK Pension Scheme

When you’re a year from your earliest retirement date (usually age 54), we’ll send you an invitation to sign up with My Retirement Planner.

You will need to login to BWebstream to use My Retirement Planner. Once logged in, you can find it under ‘Your Services’.

It’s a secure website where you can plan for retirement and find out more about your benefits in the Scheme and the alternative options. There’s links to additional support and guidance including dedicated financial advice if you’re eligible.

Your options may change over time so we recommend you visit My Retirement Planner regularly in the run up to your planned retirement.

The Trustees will send you a benefit statement each year. This shows how much your pension from the Scheme could be worth at ages 60 and 65.

To see your most up to date statement, visit Member Self-service.

You can find out when you can retire, and more about the retirement process, on the Retirement page.

Your options at retirement

Visit BWebstream to login to My Retirement Planner. It’s designed to help you understand your options and when you might want to retire. We’ll invite you to register when you are within a year of your earliest retirement age (usually age 54).

We also write to you a few months before your 60th birthday to let you know your options.

You don’t have to retire at 60, you can retire later or in some cases earlier. Visit My Retirement Planner (available via BWebstream) for more information.

Lump sum option

You can choose to take up to 25% of your benefits as a tax-free lump sum – this is known as the Pension Commencement Lump Sum (PCLS). This is normally restricted to 25% of your pension savings. Although not an issue for most people, from April 2023 the PCLS limit will be frozen at 25% of the current LTA level (which means it will be capped at £268,275). Anyone with a protected right to a higher PCLS is expected to retain this right.

Please visit the Tax allowance page to learn more.

The lump sum you receive depends on your age at retirement as the amount converted is multiplied by a factor that varies according to age.

If you choose to surrender part of your pension for a lump sum, the pension payable to your Dependant is not affected.

If you have been contributing to a Money Purchase Additional Voluntary Contribution (MPAVC), your MPAVC fund will first be used to provide all or part of your tax free lump sum before giving up any pension.

Bridge the Gap

If you take your pension before State Pension age (SPA), you could bridge the gap in your income by receiving a larger pension from the Scheme up to your SPA, and a smaller one afterwards. This is known as ‘Bridge the Gap’ or the ‘levelling option’.

You can find out more about the levelling option in the Bridge the Gap booklet.

This option is not available if you take ill health early retirement.

1/60

x

years of service in the Scheme

x

your pay

=

total pension from the Scheme

Your options at retirement

Lump sum option

Bridge the Gap

Transfer your Scheme benefits into a different arrangement