In this section
If you leave the firefighters' pension scheme 2015 and later decide to rejoin due to a change in your circumstances, the options available to you will depend on how long you've been out of the firefighters’ pension scheme 2015.
Within five years
Remaining a member
If you leave employment with a fire and rescue authority and begin employment as a firefighter with another fire and rescue authority within five years, you can remain a member of the firefighters’ pension scheme 2015.
You will need to let your new administrator know you have come from another fire and rescue authority. Your former administrator will give you a certificate summarising your benefits in the firefighters’ pension scheme 2015. Your new authority will then combine these benefits into a pension account for your new employment. This will be done automatically if there is no break between your employments. You won’t build up benefits for any time that you are not making contributions.
Special arrangements apply if you hold more than one job with either, or both, authorities. You may have to choose where your benefits should be transferred. Your new fire and rescue authority would explain this to you.
After five years
Two pension accounts
If there is more than five years before you rejoin, you would keep your deferred pension account with your previous fire and rescue authority. You would then be able to start to build up another pension with your new fire and rescue authority.
If you had an added pension account, it may be possible to transfer the entries in that account to your new employment.
Automatic enrolment
Leaving the scheme
All employers in the UK must put eligible employees into their pension scheme once every three years, even if you have previously opted out. This is in line with rules set by the Government called automatic enrolment.
If this happens and you do not want to remain a member, you would have the choice to opt out again.
Find out more in the automatic enrolment section.