As a member of the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) in the Environment Agency Pension Fund (EAPF), you have the following choices to consider...
As a member of the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) in the Environment Agency Pension Fund (EAPF), you have the following choices to consider when deciding how you’d like to increase your pension benefits.
Paying Additional Pension Contributions (APCs) which buys you extra LGPS pension. You can do this either through your payroll monthly, or by a one-off contribution, or you can pay a bigger lump sum directly to Capita.
Paying Additional Voluntary Contributions (AVCs) through your payroll to buy extra lump sum or pension on retirement (whether through the LGPS or another provider).
Paying contributions to a concurrent stakeholder or personal pension scheme through a private company.
If you elected to buy extra years of scheme membership (added years) before 1 April 2008, you can continue to pay for them and receive extra benefits on the same basis that you originally agreed to buy them, but you can’t take out a new added years contract.
If you elected to pay Additional Regular Contributions (ARCs) between 1 April 2008 and 31 March 2014, you can continue to pay for them and receive extra benefits on the same basis that you originally agreed to buy them, but you can’t take out a new ARC contract.
There’s no overall limit on the amount of contributions you can pay and you can receive tax relief on contributions up to 100% of your taxable earnings.
However, there may be a tax charge if, in any year, the value of your pension savings exceed your annual allowance (AA) (between £4,000 and £40,000 for 2022/23) or the money purchase annual allowance of £4,000.
There’ll also be a tax charge if, when you draw your benefits, the value of all your pension savings exceed the lifetime allowance (LTA) (set at £1,073,100 until 5 April 2026), unless you’ve applied for (and received) some form of HMRC protection.
More details on the AA and LTA can be found in our ‘Tax controls on pension savings’ factsheet at www.eapf.org.uk/resources/publications.
Read our Tax controls and pension savings factsheet
