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All police officers who are retiring from Sussex Police and are aged between 50-54yrs, or who have a protected pension age (PPA) of 50yrs, should be aware that there may be possible tax implications should you then take on a staff role within Sussex Police.

Your PPA is the age at which you become entitled to claim benefit under the Police Pension scheme, the two most common are:

Retiring with at least 25yrs service but less than 30yrs then you can claim a pension at age 50yrs - your PPA is 50yrs

Retiring with 30yrs or more service - your PPA is the age at which you reached 30yrs service.

Should you continue service past 30yrs then your PPA remains the date you reached 30yrs service, not your age when you start to draw your pension.

Where you have a PPA of under 50yrs then the following would appear not to apply to you. However, should you have a PPA of between 50-54yrs then if you intend to start a police staff job you must ensure that the following condition is met:

There is a break of at least 1 month between retirement and starting as police staff, and the police staff role must be materially different (HMRC will normally accept that any police staff role is different to being a police officer), otherwise a break of 6 months will need to take place.

Where there is not a break of at least 1 month then your commutation lump sum and/or pension then becomes liable to tax at rates varying between 40-70%. Your lump sum will not be liable to tax provided it is in your bank account BEFORE you commence your police staff role. However, all your pension payments will be liable to tax and this liability remains until you are aged 55yrs.

The above is a precise of the relevant tax laws and is not intend to be an authoritative account and all officers should consult an independent tax advisor and/or HMRC to see what applies in their specific circumstances.