February 2025
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 some different options 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.
Additional Pension Contributions (APCs)
Additional Voluntary Contributions (AVCs)
Don't know yet
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) of £60,000 for 2024/25 or the money purchase annual allowance of £10,000.
There’ll also be a tax charge if, over your lifetime, you have taken Lump Sums greater than your Lump Sum Allowance (LSA) (£268,275 for 2024/25) or Lump Sum Death Benefit Allowance (LSDBA) (£1,073,000 for 2024/25) unless you’ve applied for (and received) some form of HMRC protection.
More details on the AA, LSA and LSDBA can be found in our ‘Tax controls on pension savings’ factsheet at www.eapf.org.uk/resources/publications.
What do i need to know about my options?
Whichever option you choose to top up your pension, all contributions towards your pension attract tax relief.
What this means in practice, is that the pension deduction is taken from your pay before your pay is taxed. This means that less of your pay is subject to tax deductions and the reduction in your net pay will be 20% (or 40% for higher tax payers) less than the deduction from your gross pay. So. If you pay £100 extra into an APC or AVC, your net pay will only be reduced by £80 (or £60 for higher tax payers).
