My deferred pension

What you get on leaving will depend on your Qualifying service, which is essentially the time you have paid contributions to the Scheme adjusted for any changes in your BA occupations (such as a move from Flying Staff to Ground Staff) plus any service you have transferred into the Scheme.

If you previously elected to stop paying contributions and crystallise your pension on or after reaching your Normal Retirement Age, the amount of pension you will get will also depend on the actuarial, late retirement increases that are applied to your crystallised pension.

If you leave with two or more years of Qualifying service

Under APS Final Salary, you can leave your pension with BA or transfer it elsewhere.

• If you leave your pension with BA it is called a deferred pension. This can be paid at, or after Normal Retirement Age, or you can choose to draw a reduced pension from the age of 50 or even earlier if you become too ill to work. The Government raised the minimum retirement age to age 55 from 6 April 2010. Members of APS have some protection from this change (APS members who leave British Airways and draw all their pension benefits straightaway - including any AVCs and Scheme benefits from previous BA Schemes - can continue to retire from age 50 onwards). You can also exchange part of your deferred pension for a Lump sum at retirement.
• You must stop making Additional Voluntary Contributions (AVCs). If you become entitled to a deferred pension, your AVCs stay in the fund and continue to build up with investment income until your Scheme pension becomes payable.
• You can transfer the value of your BA pension to another pension scheme approved by HM Revenue and Customs.

Your pension choices after leaving your BA pension Scheme

• Get a pension from the Second State Pension (S2P).
• Get a personal pension either contracted into or out of S2P. The personal pension would be with a provider of your choice and BA will not contribute to this (apart from the portion of BA's National Insurance contributions which the Department for Work and Pensions would pass on to your provider if it were contracted out of S2P).

To make any change, give us one calendar month's written notice.