FPS 2006 Explained: 1/60 Accrual, Age 60 and Special Members

Who has FPS 2006 benefits

The official member website says the firefighters’ pension scheme 2006 closed to new members in April 2022. It was the scheme for firefighters who joined after the 1992 scheme closed on 6 April 2006 and before FPS 2015 opened on 1 April 2015. You may hold benefits in it if you were a firefighter before 1 April 2015 and either left employment with a deferred pension, or moved to FPS 2015 and hold benefits in both.

Some members were protected from moving to FPS 2015 at the time: the SPPA guide to the 2015 changes says that 2006 members who were 50 or older on 1 April 2012 stayed in the 2006 scheme, and those within four years of that threshold had tapered protection. The age-based protections were later found to be discriminatory, and since 1 April 2022 all remaining members build pension in FPS 2015. The three-scheme comparison shows the differences, and the McCloud remedy guide explains what it changed.

A large group of current firefighters therefore have a pension slice in FPS 2006 and another in FPS 2015. Each slice has its own rules for retirement age, reduction and lump sum, so a single ‘retirement age’ can mean different things for the two parts.

The formula: 1/60 of final pensionable pay

The official member website gives the formula: annual pension = pensionable service × final pensionable pay × 1/60. Its worked example is retirement at 60 with 20 years’ service and final pensionable pay of £30,000: 20 × £30,000 × 1/60 = £10,000 a year. The same simple pattern scales to any service length. The scheme lets you build up a maximum of 45 years of service.

Unlike the 1992 scheme, there is no double accrual: each year adds the same 1/60, so a 30-year career gives 30/60, half of final pay, compared with 40/60 in the 1992 scheme for the same service. At the 45-year cap the pension would be 45/60, three-quarters of final pay, though few careers reach it. The table shows the arithmetic on the £40,358 competent rate from 1 July 2026, purely as an illustration of the fraction.

‘Final pensionable pay’ is defined in the regulations rather than being your last payslip; for part-time members it is treated on a full-time basis with service adjusted. Ask your administrator to show how your final pay figure is worked out, especially after a change of role.

Retirement ages: 60, 55 and 65

The official member website says you can take your FPS 2006 pension at 60, the normal retirement age, without reduction. You may take it from 55, but it would be reduced because it will be paid for longer, with the reduction depending on how early you go. SPPA’s pre-2015 guide describes reductions of roughly 4% to 5% for each year taken early, in Scotland’s 2006 scheme; England’s reduction factors are set by GAD, so ask your administrator for a quotation at each age you are considering.

If your FPS 2006 pension is deferred, because you left or opted out and did not transfer, it is paid from 65. If your employer decides you should retire in the interests of the economical, effective and efficient management of the service, the pension is not reduced for early retirement. For those who retire after 60, no further benefits build in the 2006 scheme, but you may build FPS 2015 benefits until you retire.

Because your FPS 2015 slice has its own reduction at 55 to 59, a retirement at 57 might mean two different reductions on two slices. Compare the total in a single quotation; see firefighter pension retirement age and early retirement.

Lump sums: £12 for every £1 of pension

The official website says you can give up as much or as little pension as you like for a tax-free lump sum, and for each £1 of pension given up you get £12. The limit is 25% of the pension and the lump sum allowance, which GOV.UK gives as £268,275 for most people. A higher-tier ill-health pension cannot be exchanged for a lump sum.

The website’s worked example: a £16,000 pension, exchanging the full 25% (£4,000), gives a £48,000 lump sum and leaves £12,000 a year. In this case, the cost of the cash is £4,000 a year for life, so £48,000 is recovered in 12 years of pension not taken. Whether that trade is worthwhile depends on your other income, mortgage or debts, life expectancy and dependants. Note that the survivor’s pension is worked out after commutation for the 2006 scheme, so exchanging pension also lowers what a partner would receive.

You must ask for the lump sum no earlier than four months before retirement and before your first pension payment. Use the free lump sum calculator and the guide to commutation to work through your own numbers.

Death benefits under FPS 2006

The official FPS 2006 page says the scheme no longer provides death in service benefits, because it is closed to active members; if you are building FPS 2015 benefits, those provide the death in service cover. After retirement, if you die within five years of your pension starting, a payment equal to the balance of five years’ pension is made. The survivor’s pension is half of your pension before any early payment reduction but after commutation of lump sum, and it is reduced by 2.5% for every year or part year that a partner is more than 12 years younger, to a maximum of 50%.

A surviving spouse, civil partner or cohabiting partner can receive a survivor’s pension for life, and it does not stop on remarriage. A 13-week bereavement pension tops the survivor’s pension up to your pay or pension. A child’s pension is one quarter of the deceased’s pension for one child, and one half divided between children for more than one, with eligibility rules on age, education and dependency. You can also allocate up to one third of your pension to a survivor, in the two months before benefits become payable.

The death benefits guide compares all schemes side by side.

FPS 2006 special members: retained firefighters

The 2006 scheme has a ‘special’ section, sometimes called the modified section, set up so that retained firefighters were given benefits like their wholetime colleagues in the 1992 scheme. The member website says you may have benefits in it if you were retained before 6 April 2022 and opted to join, including through the Matthews options exercises. Benefits can no longer build there, and from April 2022 all members moved to FPS 2015.

SPPA’s Scottish guide describes the modified scheme’s terms as a uniform 1/45 accrual rate, a normal pension age of 55, a deferred age of 60, fixed commutation factors and a death grant of two times pensionable pay, and the LGA’s opting-out factsheet also gives special members a normal pension age of 55 and deferred age 60. Pensionable service for retained members is worked out by comparing actual pensionable pay with the pay of a wholetime firefighter in a similar role in each scheme year.

The second Matthews options exercise runs to 31 March 2027 according to the official website. See on-call firefighter pension for the retained position in detail.

How FPS 2006 fits with FPS 2015 and the remedy

If you moved to FPS 2015 you have a two-part pension. The 2006 slice is final salary and is based on your pay at retirement, so pay awards and promotions after 2022 can still lift it, provided the regulations’ final salary link applies. The 2015 slice is CARE. The LGA’s opting-out factsheet also shows how the slices behave if you leave: 2006 standard benefits are deferred with a normal payment age of 65, based on your pay when you opt out, and can regain the final salary link if you rejoin within five years.

For the remedy period, 1 April 2015 to 31 March 2022, eligible members will choose between legacy (2006) and reformed (2015) benefits at retirement. The comparison will appear on your annual benefit statement with remediable service statement. See the remediable service statement guide and the annual benefit statement guide.

For a personalised comparison of what each slice would give at different retirement ages, use the pension report alongside your administrator’s formal quotation.

Questions to ask about your 2006 benefits

Because the 2006 slice is calculated on final pay, small details can move the answer by thousands of pounds. These questions help pin them down.

1. Ask for confirmation of whether your service is standard or special membership.
2. Ask how final pensionable pay will be defined for you and whether any temporary allowances are excluded.
3. Request quotations at 55, 57 and 60 with and without a lump sum, showing the reduction applied to each slice.
4. Ask whether the remedy applies to you and when your remediable service statement will arrive.
5. Check your nominations for death grant, survivor’s pension and allocation.