When's the right time to retire?
The normal pension age for Pace is 65, but you can retire at any time from age 55* with the Trustees’ consent. (Some employees who were formerly in the CIS Employees’ Pension Scheme may be able to take their benefits earlier than this.) You may also be able to carry on working for the Bank while taking your retirement benefits in Pace DB.
If you paid Additional Voluntary Contributions (AVCs) while you were building up benefits in Pace DB, you can take those flexibly. You don’t have to take them at the same time as your Pace DB benefits.
If you want to retire earlier or later than 65, then please contact the Co-op Pensions Department to request a retirement quotation. Otherwise, we will be in touch around six months before you reach normal pension age with a retirement pack that sets out your options in Pace DB.
You may want to consider whether you’ll have enough income to cover your living costs. You can use our budget ready-reckoner to work out how much money you might need coming in.
If there’s a shortfall between your income and your living costs, then you should consider paying more into your pension if you can afford it, or delaying your retirement.
You should also work through our retirement checklist, which covers the main actions you need to complete before you retire.
*The minimum pension age at which people may ordinarily access their pension benefits will increase from 55 to 57 from 6 April 2028, alongside planned increases in the State Pension Age. Depending on when you joined Pace and the benefits that you have in Pace, you may be protected against this change and may still be entitled to access your benefits before age 57 after 6 April 2028.