Glad you’ve got it all sorted @mitch Police pensions these days are nowhere near as generous as they used to be (no doubt your BIL will be on the old scheme which was brilliant) plus, of course, unlike military pensions, they pay quite a bit towards them as well throughout their working life.
The contracted out thing affects millions of people, myself included. My private pension drops by about 7% when I get to 65 due to being contracted out, but my state pension won’t be affected by it. The drop was meant to coincide with starting my state pension, but that’s now not starting until I’m 67. It’s odd how it affects people differently.
It sounds as though you didn’t get a bumper redundancy payment, as most people dream of being made redundant just before retirement! If it’s your desire to continue working then I wish you well, although don’t rule out retirement if you can afford it. I retired at 54 and never looked back. You never hear anyone say “I wish that I’d retired later”!