NHS Active Members Newsletters

NHS Active member Newsletter - 19 August 2026  

Welcome to the latest edition of the SPPA’s member newsletter. In this edition we share information about your pension benefits and provide an update on the 2015 Remedy.

Your 2026 Annual Benefit Statement

Annual Benefit Statements (ABS) for most members who are paying into their pension scheme will be available to view on Engage from Monday 31 August. 

An ABS provides an estimate of your pension benefits up to 31 March 2026. 

The estimate is based on information which is provided to us by your employer.

Visit our website to sign in or register on Engage.

Your State Pension age 

Your State Pension age (SPA) is the earliest you can start to receive your state pension. This is decided by the UK government and is based on your date of birth. 

Current legislation increases the SPA to 67 for those retiring between 2026 and 2028 and a further increase to 68 for those retiring between 2044 and 2046.

What this means for you

The current SPA timeline is shown in the table below: 

You can check your exact State Pension age on the GOV.UK website. 

Explaining the normal and minimum pension age for your NHS pension

What do we mean when we say normal and minimum pension age?

Your normal pension age (NPA) is when you can apply for your full pension benefits from the NHS pension scheme. The NPA for our NHS schemes are:

• 1995 scheme: age 60
• 2008 scheme: age 65
• 2015 scheme: your state pension age

Your minimum pension age is the earliest age that you can take your pension benefits. The minimum retirement age for our NHS schemes are:

• 1995 scheme: age 55 or age 50 if you joined before 6 April 2006 and don't have any service breaks of 5 years or more
• 2008 scheme: age 55
• 2015 scheme: age 55

Where the minimum pension age is currently 55, this will increase to age 57 on 6 April 2028. 

If you choose to retire early, your pension benefits would be reduced for each year below your NPA. For example, if you retire from the 2008 scheme at age 63, your pension would be reduced by about 10% because you would be 2 years away from your NPA of 65.

Find out more about your retirement options on our website.

Ill health retirement

If you become ill during your NHS career and are unable to work, you can apply for ill health retirement.

If you have worked for at least 2 years in the NHS, you may be able to access your pension before your normal pension age (NPA).

There are two types of ill health retirement in the Scottish NHS pension scheme:

Lower tier 

A lower tier pension will be paid if you are permanently unable to do your current job due to an illness or injury, but you can carry out other forms of employment.

Upper tier 

An upper tier pension would be paid if you are permanently unable to carry out your current job and any other regular employment because of illness or injury.

Ill health pensions are not reduced if you successfully apply before your NPA and the amount you receive depends on your individual circumstances.

More information about ill health retirement is available on our website.

2015 Remedy update

The aim of 2015 Remedy is to put right the discrimination that happened when public sector pensions were reformed in 2015. If you are eligible, you will be given a choice of which benefits you want to take for the Remedy period (1 April 2015 – 31 March 2022) when you retire. While you are building up your pension, the SPPA will provide eligible members with an annual statement called an ABS-RSS which shows benefit estimates in the legacy (final salary) and reformed (CARE) schemes. 

2026 ABS-RSS delivery update

Work is underway to prepare Annual Benefit Statements (ABS). If you are eligible for the 2015 Remedy, you will get an ABS combined with a Remediable Service Statement (ABS-RSS). We intend to issue these via Engage, our online portal, by 31 August 2026. Building on the progress we made last year, most eligible members have now received a statement. However, despite our best intentions, some members are still waiting to receive one. We are sorry for this and understand how frustrating it must be. We are continuing to identify solutions to enable us to provide statements in cases where additional member circumstances make the calculations more complex. 

You can find out more by visiting our website, which also provides information about Annual Benefit Statements. If you are within three to four months of retirement, you can request an estimate.

Annual Allowance

Because of the 2015 Remedy, the SPPA must provide a Remediable Pension Saving Statement (RPSS) for members who had previously received this information between 2015 and 2022. Production of RPSS is a one-off exercise requiring recalculation of pension information over multiple years, replacing Pension Saving Statements (PSS) previously issued for any tax year in the Remedy period. 

We are making steady progress and have now started work on delivering 2026 RPSS and PSS, so that these can be issued by 6 October 2026. If you have received a RPSS, you will get a PSS in future. If you have yet to receive a RPSS, we are working very hard to get these issued. Thank you very much for your patience and understanding.

Cost claim back process

Cost reimbursement is available for individuals who are eligible for the 2015 Remedy and have pensionable service in the period between 1 April 2015 to 31 March 2022, known as 'the remedy period'.

Some costs will automatically be reimbursed to you, and other costs require you to complete an application.

Where there is an automatic reimbursement, we will contact you directly. If you have paid for financial or legal advice related to your 2015 Remedy claim, you may be eligible to apply for the costs to be reimbursed to you. 

Applications can be made by Remedy members, their personal representatives (in the case of deceased members), or designated individuals holding power of attorney. 

Read more about eligibility and how to apply on our website.

Keeping your information up to date

Have you changed your personal details recently? You can log in to Engage, our online pension portal to: 

• view your pension documents
• update your personal details

Planning to retire soon?

Engage sends an email to verify your identity when you log in.

If you registered for Engage using your work email, it is important that you update this to a personal email before your final working day. 

Changing to a personal email address means you can access your account after you retire.

To update your email address:

1. log in to your Engage account and select ‘Go to details and settings’
2. select ‘Manage my personal details' and navigate to the log in email section
3. select ‘Change email’ and enter your personal email address 
4. select ‘Save Changes’
5. check your inbox for a one-time passcode, type it into Engage and click ‘Submit’ 

Help us improve our services

Have you contacted us recently? We would like to hear about your experience.

Your feedback will help us understand how well our services are meeting your needs and identify areas for improvement.

If you would like to share your experience, please complete our short survey.

As part of the survey, you will also have the option to register your interest in taking part in future user research. If you choose to sign up, we will keep your details secure and may invite you to participate in activities such as workshops, interviews, or testing of new services and forms.

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