British Steel Pension Scheme
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Benefits on Retirement

There is a standard basis for calculating Standard Section pension benefits. On retirement, you are entitled to a pension of:

1/60 x Final Pensionable Earnings x Pensionable Service (for service up to and including 31 March 2012)
1/65 x Final Pensionable Earnings (2012) x Pensionable Service (for service from 1 April 2012)

Pensionable Service - the number of years, months and days, that you have built up under the Standard Section.

Pensionable Earnings - generally, your gross earnings in any Scheme Year less an offset, at present equal to £4,004 (for the Scheme Year 2014/15). The offset will increase annually in line with price inflation.

Pensionable Earnings (2012) - as per Pensionable Earnings above, subject to a fixed cap of £100,000 for service from 1 April 2012.

Final Pensionable Earnings - for service up to and including 31 March 2012, generally your highest Pensionable Earnings for any one Scheme Year in the last five years of Standard Section Membership.

Final Pensionable Earnings (2012) - for service from 1 April 2012, calculated by reference to an average of the highest three consecutive years pensionable earnings.

Example: a Member retiring on 31 March 2015 with Final Pensionable Earnings of £35,300 and Final Pensionable Earnings (2012) of £34,612.  Based on 20 years service up to and including 31 March 2012 and 3 years service from 1 April 2012, the member's annual pension would be calculated as follows:

(20 x 1/60 x £35,300) + (3 x 1/65 x £34,612)
=£11,766.67 + £1,597.47
=£13,364.14

Please note that abnormally wide variations in non-basic pay elements such as overtime and bonus will be averaged over 3 years, but not for benefits relating to service from 1 April 2012.

Your pension may be reduced to take account of early payment see Early Retirement.

You may exchange part of your pension for a tax-free cash lump sum. See Can I Exchange Pension for Cash?

If you have made pension contributions to the Scheme's Defined Contribution (DC) Section your retirement income would also be made up of the value of your DC Member Account.