Retirement Guidance

There is no compulsory retirement age at UCL. Staff may voluntarily retire at a time of their choice, subject to providing appropriate notice.

1. Many staff may continue to retire at their pension age (currently 66 years) as this is when they can access their full pension benefits. Staff have the choice to continue to work beyond this age and contribute to a pension scheme arrangement to the day before their 75^th birthday.

2. Staff are encouraged to discuss their retirement plans as early as possible with their manager to aid future planning and access appropriate advice and support. Such discussions can take place informally at any stage although they may be conducted more routinely during annual appraisals or reviews when managers and staff jointly plan for the future.

3. Where staff decide to retire, they should inform their manager and the Pensions Department, pensions@ucl.ac.uk in writing as far in advance as possible and at least 3 months prior to retirement to enable suitable arrangements to be made with the appropriate pension scheme. Additionally, staff with teaching or other responsibilities for students should note that they are required to give notice such that they leave at the end of a term.

4. Retirement planning and financial education events are provided by UCL, please see the Pre-Retirement Planning- Financial training course details for dates of current and future events. UCL's Pensions page can also provide further help and guidance on planning for retirement.

5. Professors who are retiring from UCL may be conferred the title of Emeritus. Please see the Emeritus Professors guidance and procedure for further guidance on this.

6. Staff who retire from UCL can also apply for a UCL alumni card which will give access to UCL libraries and a range of discounts on useful services. Please contact alumni@ucl.ac.uk / advancement@ucl.ac.uk or call 020 3108 3833.

Flexible Retirement

7. Staff may choose to flexibly retire (reducing working hours and accessing partial pension benefits) or retire before 66 years of age (normally accessing reduced pension benefits) depending on their pension scheme rules, in agreement with their Head of Department.

8. Flexible retirement may impact individual work objectives and activities, which will need to be discussed with the Head of Department and may require a change of contract e.g. for an Academic member of staff, a reduction of hours removing teaching duties may require a transfer to a Research contract

9. Staff in joint employment arrangements (i.e. employed by both UCL and the NHS) will need to discuss their flexible retirement plans with both organisations as soon as is practicable as each will have accommodations to consider. Staff may also choose to retire from one organisation while continuing their employment at the other.

10. Further information, guidance and instructions on how to apply for flexible retirement can be found on the Flexible and Partial Retirement page

Returning to UCL employment following full retirement

11. If after retiring, an individual returns to work in a different role at UCL, a break in employment will be required to retain your pension benefits. Other conditions may apply, and these are dependent on your pension scheme, as set out below:

USS – It is not possible to retire from USS if you have pre-arranged to continue to be employed at UCL under new terms and conditions. It would, however, be possible to commence employment at UCL, or another USS-applicable institution, if you have applied for the post following your retirement from UCL. UCL will require you to take a break in service for a complete week ending with a Saturday before you return. In other words, there must be an interval lasting from Sunday to Saturday.

NHS Pension Scheme – will require you to break from employment for 24 hours to retire and return. However, UCL require you to take a break in service for a complete week ending with a Saturday before you can return.  In other words, there must be an interval lasting from Sunday to Saturday.

In the past National Clinical Excellence Awards (NCEAs) stopped when retiring and returning to employment, however, this is no longer automatically the case.  If you have an NCEA and wish to retire and return, then it is expected that you will let the Advisory Committee on Clinical Impact Awards (ACCIA) know directly before you consider the retire and return option.  You can do this by completing the Clinical Excellence Award holders: employment change notification. You should provide information about your proposed retirement and any changes to your role new job plan which will allow the ACCIA to take a view about eligibility, pro-rating (if applicable), and the required timing of re-application for an excellence award.  

SAUL – will require you to break from employment for at least one calendar month and return to employment on a part time basis only. The SAUL Trustee reserve the right to cancel, reduce or suspend your SAUL pension in payment if you return to work on a full-time basis.