What MINIMUM number of years' service must a member of an employer pension scheme have in order to qualify for a preserved retirement benefit on leaving service?

• A. 2
• B. 3
• C. 4
• D. 5

Answer: (A)

A preserved retirement benefit is a deferred pension that is earned when you leave a job before normal retirement age but still after you’ve built up some pension entitlement. The minimum service required to trigger that preserved entitlement is two years. Once you reach two years, the pension rights you’ve accrued are preserved and will become payable at retirement age if you don’t return to work or take other options. If you leave with less than two years, you typically don’t qualify for a preserved benefit, and some schemes may offer only a refund of contributions instead. So the two-year mark is the point at which a deferred, preserved pension begins to exist.