Retirement for university support staff
With effect from 1 October 2011, there is no normal or fixed age at which support staff have to retire. The University may not request support staff to take retirement at a particular age nor suggest that they consider doing so. It is for individual members of staff to decide when they wish to retire.
To retire, a member of staff must write to their department, providing the appropriate period of notice (as specified in their contract) of their intention to retire.
Support staff may elect to retire at, or at any time after, the minimum pension age stipulated in the Rules of the pension scheme to which they belong.
Support staff who are thinking of applying for re-grading or promotion into an academic-related grade need to give careful consideration to the effect this might have on their eligibility for retirement and pension.
Retirement options
Support staff belong to a number of pension schemes and specific advice needs to be taken on how each scheme’s rules apply in any given situation (contact Pensions Office). But, to illustrate, the current possibilities under OSPS, the principal pension scheme for support staff, are:
Normal retirement
65 is the normal pension age. From age 65 (taken to be 31 July following the employee’s 65th birthday) all eligible OSPS members are entitled, if they choose, to take their full unreduced pension and retire from the University. But if they do not wish to do so, they can continue to work beyond 65 and take their full pension later. The normal pension age will rise in line with state pension age.
Early retirement
Members of staff may apply to retire before 65. This is commonly known as early retirement.
- The 55th birthday is generally the earliest age at which a member of OSPS may apply to take their pension and retire.
- Some members of staff may, however, carry forward the right to retire on or after their 50th birthday.
- Early retirement usually entails receiving a smaller pension – the benefits are actuarially reduced by an amount that depends on how long before 65 the pension is taken.
- However, a current OSPS member who joined the scheme before 1 Aug 2004 may be granted early retirement from age 60, without actuarial reduction.
Flexible retirement
The University offers support staff a flexible retirement option. This is where a member of staff continues to work, but takes a reduction in salary, for example by working reduced hours, in exchange for payment of a portion of their pension. This mix of work and pension can offer an attractive way of tapering towards eventual full retirement. See flexible retirement for further information.
Ill-health retirement
If a member of staff's health deteriorates so that they are permanently unable to do their job they may apply for an ill health early retirement pension. Contact your HR Business Partner for further advice.
Retirement information
Members of staff, who until now may not have thought they would need to reach their own decision about retirement, will need information and support. Given the importance of the retirement decision, departments and divisions should ensure staff have access to relevant information and encourage anyone considering retirement to consult before reaching their decision. Available support includes:
Letter
Departments and, where appropriate, divisions should write to individual employees at a time when they might reasonably be expected to be starting to consider their retirement options i.e. at around their 55th birthday and then every five years thereafter. The purpose of the letter would be to remind staff of their options, to update them on sources of information and support currently available and to encourage them to consult. A pro-forma letter may be downloaded from Documents.
Preparation for Retirement Seminars
The Oxford Learning Institute (OLI), through an external provider Laterlife, offers a one day seminar, Planning Retirement, which covers many of the issues which need to be taken into consideration when thinking of retirement. It is open to staff of any age, but it is of obvious interest to those who are considering retiring within a few years.
Pensions information
Anyone considering retirement would be well advised to get an individual pension estimate: the size of each person’s pension benefits depends on a number of specific factors such as age, pensionable salary and pensionable service. The Pensions Office are available to provide pensions estimates and other pension information. But they cannot give financial advice. For this members of staff will have to consult an independent financial adviser.
Meetings with managers
Anyone considering their retirement options is encouraged to discuss these with their administrator or manager. Such discussions should give the employee important information about how the department sees work evolving over the coming years, how the employee might be affected by any changes, and how the department might respond to a request for flexible retirement or for a change in role.
Managing without a retirement age
For departments, the abolition of the retirement age for support staff brings two particular challenges.
In the past the existence of a retirement date for members of staff gave departments a degree of certainty for future planning and also, on occasion, a pretext for not addressing staff development or performance and conduct issues. Both now need active management.
If departments are to avoid acting in a way that could be seen as discriminatory on grounds of age, administrators and managers must treat and manage older staff in the same way as everyone else.
Discussion of retirement
Managers should not shy away from initiating a discussion about an older employee’s future plans. Care needs to be taken, however, to avoid direct questions that give the impression of suggesting that the employee should be thinking of retiring. There are no problems with discussing retirement if the subject is first raised by the employee. Best practice is to start discussion by asking general questions about how the employee sees their future plans and development and to ensure that such discussions form part of a wider pattern of meetings with other staff, such as occur within a PDR process.
Performance
Care has to be taken to avoid making any assumptions about capability or performance changing with age. High performing older employees should have the same access to any career opportunities and merit pay schemes as others. Equally unsatisfactory performance must be addressed as and when it arises. Best practice is to review performance regularly, but again such reviews cannot be targeted only at older employees. They need to be part of a general review process for all staff.
In the absence of a retirement age, the grounds for dismissal are the same as those available for other staff: conduct, capability, redundancy or for some other substantial reason
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