Firefighter Pension After 20, 25 and 30 Years: Worked Examples

The assumptions behind every example

Pension examples are only useful if their assumptions are visible. Here they are. Unless a section says otherwise: pay is the competent firefighter rate of £40,358 a year (NJC rates effective 1 July 2026) treated as pensionable and constant across the career; retirement is at the normal pension age; there is no early retirement reduction; figures are annual pension before tax; and no pay awards, promotions or breaks in service are modelled, except where stated.

For FPS 2015 the annual credit is £40,358 ÷ 59.7 = £676.01 (rounded). The account is revalued each 1 April by an assumed rate applied to the opening balance, then the new year’s credit is added, which follows the convention in the LGA member example. The revaluation rates used are 0%, 3% and 4.8%. The last is the earnings-based figure for April 2026 (per the March 2026 SPPA circular) repeated every year, which is unlikely and is shown only as an upper illustration.

For the 1992 and 2006 schemes the fraction is applied to £40,358 as if it were final pensionable pay, which is a simplification: the real figures use final or average pensionable pay as defined in the regulations. You can rebuild the sums with the pension calculator, and the method is explained step by step in how to calculate your firefighter pension.

Example 1: flat pay across the three schemes

The table applies each scheme’s formula to the same flat £40,358 for 20, 25 and 30 years. It shows why the 1992 scheme, with double accrual, produces the highest figures for a full career, and why FPS 2015 depends heavily on revaluation. At 20 years, all three are close to £13,500 with no revaluation, because 20 × 1/60 (or 1/59.7) is similar. The gap opens after 20 years, when 1992 accrual doubles.

For FPS 2015, the 30-year figure ranges from £20,280 at 0% to £43,401 at 4.8%. The fact that revaluation is earnings-linked while serving is a valuable feature of the scheme, but nothing guarantees a particular rate. The 3% column is a middle assumption, chosen for illustration.

Note also that the 1992 scheme’s retirement age is 55 (or 50 with 25 years’ service), whereas FPS 2006 and FPS 2015 normal pension age is 60. A 1992 member with 30 years’ service could start drawing 40/60 several years before a 2015 member reaches the same 30 years’ service. See FPS 1992 vs 2006 vs 2015.

Example 2: a realistic career path in FPS 2015

Real pay rises with experience and promotion. Take a firefighter who spends 2 years at the development rate of £31,539, 10 years at the competent rate of £40,358, and then is promoted to Watch Manager (competent A) at £46,980 for the remaining 18 years, all in today’s NJC figures. This is an invented career, and keeps pay constant within each stage. With a 3% revaluation assumption, the pension after 20 years is about £18,641, after 25 years about £25,787 and after 30 years about £34,073.

With no revaluation the same career gives about £14,112 at 20 years, £18,047 at 25 years and £21,982 at 30 years. Promotion helps because higher pay in later years is added to the account, but unlike a final salary scheme it does not lift earlier years, and the promotion’s effect is limited to the years spent at the higher pay.

For a fuller picture of how a promotion changes both pay and pension, use the promotion calculator alongside the pension calculator. The pay scales pages show current rates for each role and pay point.

Example 3: a two-slice pension from 2006 and 2015

Many serving firefighters have two slices. Suppose a firefighter joined in 2010, and has 12 years in FPS 2006 up to 31 March 2022 and then 18 years in FPS 2015 up to retirement at 60, on flat £40,358 in both. The 2006 slice is 12/60 × £40,358 = £8,071.60, on the simplifying assumption that final pay is £40,358. The 2015 slice over 18 years with 3% revaluation is about £15,828. The total is about £23,900 a year.

The remedy may change the split. For 1 April 2015 to 31 March 2022 the member might choose 2006 or 2015 benefits, so the total shown is not certain. The remediable service statement will show both options, and the choice is made at retirement. Read the remediable service statement guide and FPS 2006 explained.

Retirement age also matters: the 2006 slice at 60 is unreduced, and the 2015 slice at 60 is unreduced, but at 57 both would be reduced by different factors. Ask for a combined quotation at each age.

Example 4: taking a lump sum, and the effect on income

Using the 30-year, 3% FPS 2015 figure of £32,162, giving up the maximum 25% is £8,040.40 of pension at £12 per £1, a lump sum of £96,485 and a reduced pension of £24,121. The lump sum is inside the £268,275 lump sum allowance. The cost is £8,040 of income a year for life, so the lump sum equals about 12 years of the pension given up. For a 20-year, 0% pension of £13,520 the same exchange gives £40,561 and leaves £10,140 a year.

Whether to take a lump sum depends on your needs. It can clear a mortgage or fund a career change, and it is tax-free within limits, but it permanently lowers your income, is not increased by inflation as the pension is, and, in the 2006 and 2015 schemes, also lowers what a survivor would receive. The free lump sum calculator lets you test different amounts, and the commutation guide explains the rules.

For the 1992 scheme the factor comes from a GAD table by age rather than £12, so do not reuse these figures for that scheme.

Example 5: retiring early at 55 to 59

If you retire before 60, the FPS 2015 slice is reduced. The LGA’s November 2023 retirement factsheet showed English active reductions of 20% at 55, 16.6% at 56, 12.9% at 57, 8.9% at 58 and 4.6% at 59. Applied to the £34,073 career-path figure (30 years, 3%), retirement at 57 would leave 87.1% of it, about £29,678 a year. At 55, 80% would be about £27,258. Factors are reviewed by GAD, so they may have changed.

Early retirement also means fewer years of service and pay growth, so the pension is smaller than the 30-year figure in any case: someone who starts at 25 reaches 30 years’ service at 55, and reduction applies to what has been built. It also means the pension is paid for longer. The reduction is the price of that.

There are several ways to reduce the bill, such as retiring with legacy benefits first and leaving the 2015 slice deferred, but only if the legacy scheme allows it. See early retirement, retirement age and pension and State Pension for the bridging question.

Example 6: a retained firefighter on retaining fee only

A retained (on-call) firefighter’s pension depends on pensionable pay. The official website says pensionable pay includes a retaining allowance. Assume, for a simple case, £6,054 a year of pensionable pay — the full retainer for a competent firefighter in the site’s pay data — with no other pensionable pay. This is an assumption: whether call-out and drill payments are also pensionable depends on your service’s determination.

The pension credit is £6,054 ÷ 59.7 = £101.41 a year. Over 20 years that is £2,028 with no revaluation, and about £2,725 with 3% revaluation. The contribution, in the first band of 11.09% on actual pay, is £671.39 a year. So on retaining fee alone, the pension is small, which is why it matters to check whether call-out pay counts and to see the on-call pension guide and the on-call pay calculator.

Retained firefighters with pre-2006 service may also have extra options under Matthews, whose second options exercise runs to 31 March 2027, according to the official website.

How to use these examples on your own numbers

The examples show the shape of the answer, not your answer. To build your own, gather your annual benefit statement, pensionable pay by year, legacy service and any remedy statements. Then run the pension calculator with two or three assumptions and compare with your administrator’s quotation.

1. Find your current pension on your latest annual benefit statement and note the date of the figures.
2. Estimate pensionable pay for each future year, and be honest about promotions.
3. Choose two revaluation assumptions and run both, so you see a range.
4. Add any legacy slices, using your statement’s figures rather than a formula.
5. Model the lump sum and early retirement options together and compare income to a given age.
6. Ask your administrator for a formal quotation before you commit to a retirement date.