If you leave the police force with less than two years’ qualifying service and without entitlement to any other benefit under the 2015 Scheme, you may be entitled to have your pension contributions returned to you, less deduction of tax.
Like any leaver you may, alternatively, be able to ask for your scheme benefits to be transferred to another pension scheme – see Transferring benefits for more information.
You should note that a refund of contributions will only be of the contributions that you have paid, but a transfer value will reflect the total value of pension benefits which have accrued due to contributions made by you and your Police Pension Authority.
If you opt out of the scheme after 3 months but before 2 years’ qualifying service you will receive a refund of your pension contributions upon leaving the police force.
The exception to this is if you are permanently medically unfit as a result of an injury received in the execution of duty and your Police Pension Authority compulsorily retires you on the grounds of ill health; in which case you will be entitled to a pension under the 2015 Scheme.