The Government has confirmed it has no plans to reduce the pension age for ambulance service workers, responding to a petition that called for the age to be lowered to 60 in line with police and firefighters.
Currently, 60 is the standard normal pension age for members of the police and fire service, assuming it is a full pension paid without reductions. The petition, launched by Barbara Elizabeth Whitehead, had 19,755 signatures at the time of writing, having reached 10,000 on September 9.
The petition says: "Lower the pension age for ambulance service workers under the NHS scheme to 60, in line with the Police and Firefighters. Ambulance staff have the stresses and face the same dangers as police and fire fighters. They do not have the privilege of lower pension ages despite being front line workers."
Government response
The Department of Health and Social Care's response said: "Government has no plans to reduce the pension age for ambulance service workers. The NHS Pension Scheme provides valuable benefits and multiple options for members to retire before normal pension age.
"The normal pension age in the NHS Pension Scheme, including for ambulance staff, is 60 in the 1995 Section, 65 in the 2008 Section, and linked to State Pension age in the 2015 Scheme."
The response added that reducing the normal pension age for ambulance staff would result in significant additional costs which would need to be met by scheme members, employers, taxpayers, or a combination of all three.
Retirement options
The Department highlighted that the minimum retirement age in the NHS Pension Scheme, including for ambulance staff, is between 50 and 55 depending on when the member joined. For members who joined after 3 November 2021, the minimum retirement age will rise to 57 in 2028.
Since 1 April 2016, ambulance staff have had access to an Early Retirement Reduction Buy Out option, allowing members to pay additional pension contributions to retire up to three years earlier without a financial reduction. Partial retirement was introduced from 1 October 2023.
Ambulance staff burnout
Ambulance workers report the highest level of burnout inside the NHS, with around 51 per cent reporting burnout and only a third feeling they had achieved a good balance between work and home life.
They also have the highest sickness rate at 8.8 per cent, second only to ambulance support staff at 10.4 per cent. More than 1,000 ambulance workers have left their profession since 2018. The GMB Union said that 75 per cent of paramedics who retired from the NHS left before the age of 60 due to severe workload pressures and burnout.
