Age retirement

Age retirement benefits are payable if you leave the workforce after reaching your minimum retiring age, which is 55 for most members

Find your minimum preservation age.

Termination of employment before reaching your minimum retirement age is regarded as a "resignation" for superannuation purposes (unless termination is due to retrenchment, invalidity or death).

Retirement on reaching minimum preservation age

When you retire from the workforce on or after reaching your preservation age, you have the following choices:

Lump Sum with no pension	A once-only lump sum of the three benefit components.
Convert the lump sum to a pension	You can convert (that is, exchange) a minimum of half, and up to all, of your lump sum to an indexed pension. If you decide to convert less than your total lump sum to an indexed pension, the balance is paid to you as a lump sum.
Preserve your whole benefit	You can preserve your whole benefit in the Scheme and later take it as either a lump sum, an indexed pension or a combination of both. If you subsequently join another eligible superannuation scheme you may be able to transfer your benefit to that scheme.
Partial preservation	You can take a lump sum of less than the full amount of your PSS benefit and preserve the balance in the Scheme. But if you do this you will not be able to take the balance as pension.

While any part of your benefit is preserved, the member and productivity components attract Fund earnings at the Fund allocation rate, while the employer-financed component is adjusted annually in accordance with movements in the Consumer Price Index.

Retirement before reaching minimum preservation age

If you retire from the workforce on or after reaching your minimum retirement age (55 for most people), but before reaching your preservation age, the following benefit options are available:

Preserve your whole benefit	You can preserve your whole benefit in the Scheme for payment at a later date. If you do this you can then claim the preserved benefit and choose to roll it over to another fund, provided you have retired permanently.
Partial preservation (members who joined before 1 July 1999 only)	You can be paid a lump sum of up to your SIS upper limit (zero if you joined after 30 June 1999) and preserve the balance in the Scheme for payment at a later date. If you choose this option you will not be able to convert any part of the remaining balance to a PSS pension, but you can subsequently roll over the balance to a fund of your choice.
Lump sum and pension (members who joined before 1 July 1999)	You can be paid a lump sum of up to your SIS upper limit (zero if you joined after 30 June 1999) and, if the balance is 50% or more of your total benefit, convert the balance into a pension.
Pension only	You can take the whole benefit as an indexed pension.

Surcharge debt

Any accrued surcharge debt you may have at the time your benefit is claimed must be deducted from your final benefit in all cases.

Normally, the surcharge debt is discharged by reducing your pension, but you can choose to have it deducted from your lump sum benefit if you wish.

For more information on remaining in the workforce, surcharge debt, SIS upper limit see The PSS Super Book.