What is phased retirement?
A. You may take phased retirement without having a break in employment provided that your pensionable salary reduces by at least 25% for a minimum of 12 months. This could be because you have taken up a post of lesser responsibility or because you are working less hours. You can decide how much you wish to take of the benefits you have accrued up to the start of your phased retirement, subject to a maximum of 75% of your total benefits. Your remaining service will be aggregated with the subsequent service you accrue. For further information see the Retirement – arrangements and planning leaflet. To obtain an online estimate of benefits please use the ARB / Premature Retirement Calculator and refer to point 5 of the notes on the calculator regarding phased retirement. For further information see also the Phased Retirement FAQs section.
A. You may take phased retirement without having a break in employment provided that your pensionable salary reduces by at least 25% for a minimum of 12 months. This could be because you have taken up a post of lesser responsibility or because you are working less hours. You can decide how much you wish to take of the benefits you have accrued up to the start of your phased retirement, subject to a maximum of 75% of your total benefits. Your remaining service will be aggregated with the subsequent service you accrue.
Phased retirement programs can take many forms. Some programs allow older employees to reduce their work hours, shift to part-time schedules or simply gain more flexibility in setting their hours. Other companies set up pools of temporary workers made up of retired employees who can be called on to fill vacancies as needed. These newly minted temporary workers can accept or decline an assignment as they see fit. When successful, these types of phased retirement arrangements can help companies save money by retaining older workers as part-time or temporary employees rather than facing the cost of filling those vacated positions from the outside or through a temp agency that charges a fee. Moreover, companies in competitive industries or geographies can use phased retirement to keep talented older employees from retiring and going to work for a competitor. Communication Is Critical Companies that implement phased retirement programs would do well to communicate them thoroughly to employe
Phased retirement is when you receive a portion of pension while at the same time continuing to accrue pension benefits in the same pension plan. This was prohibited by the Income Tax Regulations (ITR) until amendments were passed on December 14, 2007. In order to accommodate the ITR amendments, changes to the Pension Benefits Standards Act (PBSA) and the Pension Benefits Standards Regulations (PBSR) were made to permit phased retirement. These changes to the pension legislation came into force on March 31, 2009. 2. Who is eligible for phased retirement? A person is eligible to be offered a phased retirement benefit at age 55 or older where entitled to an unreduced immediate pension under the terms of their pension plan, or at age 60 or older where entitled to a reduced immediate pension. In addition, current retirees receiving a pension will be able to return to work under a phased retirement arrangement. Phased retirement applies only to members of federally regulated pension plans c
Phased retirement begins with working part-time or unconventional hours, but it doesn’t end there. “I don’t consider just slowing down to be a comprehensive phased-retirement program,” says Larry Anderson, president of the National Older Worker Career Center. “People will need access to retirement benefits in a phased way, such as partial Social Security payments that would extend the life of those funds.” Older workers looking to phase out their careers rather than simply turn off the lights on them often find that they must ad lib, in collaboration with their bosses and HR. “We’re finding that informal arrangements exist at almost every employer, but formal programs are rare,” says Steve Vernon, a vice president at Watson Wyatt Worldwide. Lincoln Financial Group, an enthusiastic proponent of phased retirement as a tool for retention and the transfer of knowledge from experienced workers to younger ones, is typical. “We don’t have a specific program for phased retirement,” says Karen
