Guidance

Reserve Forces Pension Scheme 2005: regulations and guidance

Reserve forces pension scheme regulations and guidance, including full time reserve service.

Documents

Reserve Forces Pension Scheme

Details

The Reserve Forces Pension Scheme 2005 (RFPS 05) rules have been amended so that in death in service cases, the lump sum will be paid to the nominee (if there is one). If there is no nominee, it must be paid to the spouse, civil partner or surviving adult dependant (if there is one). If there is no-one in that category, it must be paid to the member’s personal representative (estate).

This accords with long standing published policy that the lump sum benefit should go to the member’s spouse or eligible partner if there is one. The amended rules provide for a surviving spouse, civil partner or adult dependent to qualify for a lump sum death benefit irrespective of whether the member has completed the two years qualifying service for a pension.

A new rule has been introduced that will enable members of RFPS 05 who apply for fixed protection of their lifetime allowance (LTA) to comply with HMRC conditions while retaining most of the benefits available to active members.

The scheme rules have been corrected to provide for pension credit members (PCMs) to receive their pension benefits immediately on reaching age 65 or when the pension scheme offer (PSO) takes effect if that is later. The scheme rules allow for a PCM to opt for early payment of their pension benefits from age 55 on actuarially reduced terms.

Updates to this page

Published 27 August 2010
Last updated 2 February 2015 + show all updates
  1. Added links to 4 Statutory Instruments.

  2. Added 'Reserve Forces Non Regular Permanent Staff (Pension and Attributable Benefits Schemes) Regulations 2011' and 'Reserve Forces Non Regular Permanent Staff (Redundancy Scheme) Regulations 2012'

  3. Added replacement version of Reserve Forces (Attributable Benefits etc) Regulations 2001.

  4. Added the Reserve Forces (Full-Time Reserve Service Pension Scheme 1997) (Amendment) Regulations 2012.

  5. First published.

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