Voluntary redundancy

If you are an active member of APS, please contact us for an up to date statement of benefits or a retirement quotation if you are thinking of drawing your pension benefits.

Your latest AVC fund balance

If you have an APS AVC fund, you can view your latest available AVC fund balances by clicking on the ‘Smart Additional Voluntary Contributions (SmartAVCs)’ link under ‘Your e-Forms’.

Yes, you can. However, the entire cost of providing any extra pension must be met by your payment. The cost of £100 a year of pension is currently between £5,000 and £8,000 depending on your age at retirement and there is no spouse pension attached to the additional pension secured. Please contact us if you would like more details about this option.

You will be able to pay a redundancy payment into your APS, BAPP or SIPP pension but you cannot pay it into an APS AVC account.

Can I take my pension?

You can take your APS benefits at any time from age 50 if you wish.

If you draw your pension earlier than your normal retirement age (NRA), your pension payments will be reduced to allow for the longer payment period.

Can I draw my AVCs only first?

There is no option under APS to take a tax-free lump sum or draw only your AVCs separately from your APS pension. However, you can transfer some or all of your APS AVCs independently of your APS deferred pension to another approved pension arrangement.

We have detailed information about finding regulated retirement advice on the ‘Financial advice’ page of this website, including where to find an adviser and a useful guide from the Financial Conduct Authority on ‘What to ask an adviser’. The ‘Financial advice’ page also includes details of our Pension Advice Allowance option, which allows you to use up to £500 of your APS AVCs towards regulated retirement advice.

If you leave BA and you are over age 50, you can choose to draw your APS pension straight away, or you can leave it in the scheme and draw it later. If you decide to draw it later, you will be entitled to a deferred pension which is due to be paid from your normal retirement age (NRA) under the rules of your Scheme. Your deferred pension will receive yearly increases in line with the Scheme rules between your date of leaving and the date you draw it.

We will send full details of your pension benefits and options automatically to your home address after you leave. If you have any further queries about your pension, please contact us.

If you are over age 50, you can usually draw your pension immediately subject to the APS Scheme rules. If you are an active member of APS and under your Normal Retirement Age (NRA) and you have registered to manage your pension online, you can use our pension modeller to model your pension and lump sum options at different retirement ages.

If you have any queries about your pension, please contact us.

If you are considering retiring within the next four months, please contact us to request a quotation. If you are under your normal retirement age (NRA) and you have registered to manage your pension online, you can use our pension modeller to model your pension and lump sum options at different retirement ages.

When you are approaching your NRA, we will write to you with full details of your APS pension benefits and options about four months beforehand.

You can contact us to ask for a retirement quotation at any time. Please allow at least four months between the date of your request and the date you wish to draw your APS pension.

Yes. The Scheme includes a flexible retirement option but only while you are still employed by British Airways. The flexible retirement option gives you one opportunity at any time from age 55 to obtain BA's consent to permanently reduce your working hours and draw all or part of your pension benefits built up to that date whilst continuing to build up further pension for future service. Your remaining benefits must then be drawn at final retirement.

If you have APS AVCs, you can choose to transfer them independently of your APS deferred pension. You can choose to transfer just your AVCs out of the Scheme, or you may choose to transfer your main Scheme pension out as well. Before transferring benefits out of the Scheme, you should get free guidance from Pension Wise (www.pensionwise.gov.uk) to make sure any new arrangements meet your needs and that you fully understand how this will affect any tax you have to pay.

A pension transfer from a defined benefit (DB) pension scheme such as APS means giving up your benefits in the Scheme (and any dependants’ benefits you have paid towards) in return for a cash value which is invested in another pension scheme of your choice.

Vist the Can I transfer my pension out? page to learn more about this option.

You can take a partial transfer out of your APS pension and leave the rest within the Scheme if you have a deferred pension entitlement which was built up both before and after April 1997.

APS pensions are generally made up of two main portions, built up over the following periods:

1. Pension earned before April 1997*
2. Pension earned after April 1997

An APS member who has a deferred pension entitlement, which was built up during both of these periods has one opportunity to make a partial transfer out in respect of the pension earned before April 1997 before drawing or transferring out their remaining Scheme benefits (earned after April 1997) at a later date.

* In all cases, any pension earned before April 1997 must be transferred out.

Visit our Partial transfers page for more information about this option.

Please use the online ‘Contact us’ form to request a CETV quotation, or call us on 020 8538 2100 (9am to 1pm, Monday to Friday).