Benefits before and after 1 April 2014
This is normally the pay on which you’ve paid pension contributions during your last year of membership, or a figure taken from one of the previous two years, if higher.
If you worked part time, your final pay will be based on the pay you would’ve earned if you’d worked full time.
This is the length of time you were a member of the Scheme, but it can include other periods, such as service transferred into the Scheme from a previous pension arrangement, or any extra service you’ve purchased.
Your membership is measured in years and days, so every day counts towards your benefits. If you worked part time, your membership is scaled down to reflect the hours you worked.
Final pay protection may be available where a member experiences a reduction or restriction in their pensionable pay.
If this applies to you, your employer will have given you confirmation of your eligibility. This protection allows you to elect to use a pay figure taken from an earlier period than would otherwise be allowed. At the time you stopped membership, we’ll have provided you with the necessary information to enable you to use this protection.
Benefits are calculated annually using the pensionable pay earned each year and are revalued annually in line with the cost of living.
You can exchange part of your annual pension for a tax free lump sum at the rate of £12 of lump sum for each £1 of annual pension you give up. We’ll give you more information, quotations and an election form shortly before your benefits become payable.
If you were paying additional contributions before you left, those contributions stopped being payable when you left the LGPS.
If you completed an additional contributions arrangement before leaving, you’ll receive the full amount that you set out to buy. However, if you had an arrangement that was incomplete when you left, please see below.
You’ll be credited with the extra pension that you’ve paid for up to the date you leave. This will increase the value of your deferred benefits, which, in turn, will increase any transfer value that may be paid to a new pension arrangement.
If you were buying additional membership, you’ll be credited with the extra period of membership that you’ve paid for up to the date you leave. This will increase the value of your deferred benefits which, in turn, will increase any transfer value paid to a new pension arrangement.
The extra benefits will be calculated on the same basis as you had agreed to buy them.
The value of your AVC fund will continue to be invested until it is paid out. Your AVC pot:
Can be transferred to another pension arrangement, even if you don’t want to transfer out your main Scheme benefits
Can be left until the day before your 75th birthday
Must be drawn at the same time as your LGPS benefits
As you cannot pay in-house AVCs after leaving, any extra life cover paid for through AVCs stops when you leave.
If you rejoin the LGPS (England and Wales), your deferred benefits will be combined with your new pension record and any membership you built up before 1 April 2014 would be linked to your final salary on leaving your new employment.
However, if, between leaving the LGPS and rejoining, you’ve had a break of more than 5 years in which you didn’t contribute to a public service pension scheme, the benefits built up before 1 April 2014 will be converted into a fixed amount of pension and won’t be linked to your final salary.
You can elect to keep your benefits separate so long as you do so within 12 months of rejoining the LGPS.
However, if you opted out of the LGPS after 10 April 2015 to defer your benefits, you can’t combine them with your new pension record; these benefits must be kept separate.
If, when you left, you held a separate LGPS (England and Wales) pension relating to an employment that has continued, your benefits will be combined into a single pension account unless you elect to keep the benefits separate.
Once again, you must make your election within 12 months of rejoining the LGPS if you wish to take this option.
Watch a helpful video called 'How your pension works below.
