Our records are held under National Insurance numbers so you need to be able to quote this in any communication with us. Not everyone can remember their National Insurance number and we have too many records to find you by any other method. For example, there are 603 J Smiths recorded on our system! We show the date of birth, as we need you to check that it is recorded correctly. If a date of birth is wrong, it could lead to payment of your benefits at the wrong age.
Are you part time?
If so, for the first time this year we have included a personal message on your Pensions Forecast explaining how this relates to your pay and membership for pension purposes. Please refer to this message for further details.
Have you ever worked part time?
If so, each period you build up as a part timer is scaled down, depending on how many hours you work. If you ever change your hours, each period will count as a different block of membership. When you leave, we add all the blocks of membership together to get your total membership.
If your employer has not told us your hours have changed, the membership on your forecast will be wrong so you should contact your pension/payroll department about this.
But remember, whether you are part time or full time when you leave, we will always use the full time pay for your job to work out your benefits.
Example
Joan is about to retire after working for 25 years as a school cook. She is part time now (working half the hours) but has been full time in the past. Here's how we will treat her pay and membership...
Pay: |
|
Actual part time pay for half the hours: |
£9,000 a year |
Full time pay for working out benefits: |
£18,000 a year |
|
|
Membership: |
|
15 years full time = |
15 years |
10 years on half the hours = |
5 years |
Total membership for working out benefits: |
20 years |
Have you had other local government membership that has not been transferred?
You may have earlier membership in the scheme but have not transferred it to your current job. You must ask us within 12 months of joining the scheme so it may now be too late. If more than 12 months have elapsed and the earlier period ended after 31/03/2008 then you have up to 01/10/2011 if you want to link the period with your current membership. Beyond that you will need to contact your employer to see if they will extend the time limit, but they will probably need a good reason to agree to this.
Have you had any breaks in membership?
If you have been on maternity or adoption leave, had a career break or other period of approved leave of more than 30 days (and not opted to pay contributions), previously opted out of the scheme, taken part in industrial action, changed employer or had any unauthorised absence from work, your membership may have been affected. In some cases and within certain timescales, you can elect to pay contributions to cover the period so you should speak to your employer to check if this is possible.
Are you a man who joined the scheme before 1st April 1972 and have been married at any time during your membership?
If so, the membership you have built up from the date you joined the scheme to 31/03/1972 has been reduced by 11% unless you have been paying extra contributions to avoid the reduction. This is to cover the liability for widow's pension based on membership before 01/04/72. It is no longer possible to elect to pay contributions to avoid the reduction.
Were you allowed to join the scheme at the same time as you started your job?
Since 02/05/95, all local government employees (apart from casual staff and since then, employees who work for some of our smaller employers with admitted body status) have automatically been brought into the scheme. But prior to this, you may not have been able to join straightaway because of the eligibility rules that were in place. Factors such as your hours of work, age or the sort of job you were doing could have excluded you from the scheme. If you feel that you were unfairly excluded from membership then you should read the Pensions Advisory Service notes.
 Pensions Advisory Service 
The scheme’s normal retirement age is 65. This is when all members are guaranteed payment of their benefits in full. You can choose to retire and draw your pension from age 60 but your benefits could be reduced if you do this. We cannot assume that all of our members want to retire at age 60 as many don’t choose to (and an increasing number carry on working after age 65), so we show the benefits that are due at age 65 for everyone.
Your employer has supplied us with the pay figure we have used in your forecast. If your pay is lower than you would expect, it could be because:
- Not all of your pay may be pensionable. We include each of the following in your pay for pension purposes:
- Basic pay
- Bonus
- Contractual overtime
- Shift allowance
- Standby allowance
So this may not include all your pay, as it doesn't include things like non contractual overtime or car allowance, and extras like rent free accommodation will only be included if spelled out in your contract.
- You have been on reduced pay, perhaps due to:
- sickness
- maternity or adoption leave
- career break
- industrial action
- unauthorised absence
- Your hours have changed but your employer hasn’t told us. So when your pay figure was adjusted to the whole time rate, the wrong hours have been used resulting in an under-estimated pay figure.
If you still don’t know why your pay is different from what you would expect, please speak to your employer's pensions officer.
This is probably because your hours have changed but your employer hasn’t told us. So when your pay figure was adjusted to the whole time rate, the wrong hours have been used resulting in an over-estimated pay figure. Remember, we always use the full time pay not the pay a part time worker actually receives.
If you still don’t know why your pay is different from what you would expect, please speak to your employer's pensions officer.
The changes in the scheme rules in April 2008 mean you no longer build up an automatic lump sum from 01/04/08. So in most cases, the figure shown at 65 will be the same as the figure shown at 31/03/11. For the same reason, it may be the same figure as that shown in your 2010 illustration and it may even be less than the amount shown in earlier illustrations.
Your membership to 31/03/08 generates a pension based on 1/80th of your final year’s pay plus an automatic tax-free lump sum of 3 times your pension. Your membership from 01/04/08 to age 65 generates a higher rate of pension based on 1/60th of your final year’s pay only. But when you retire, you will have the option to get more tax-free lump sum in exchange for some of your pension, if you prefer.
For the first time this year, a personal message about lump sums has been included on your forecast if you are a member who joined the Fund for the first time on or after 01/04/08. If this applies to you, under the regulations, you don’t automatically get a lump sum, which is why no lump sum figures are shown. Please refer to the personal message on your forecast for further details.
We only confirm your maximum lump sum when we are due to pay your benefits. This is because other pension benefits you may have elsewhere, including AVC funds, could affect the maximum lump sum we can actually pay out, so we have to get more information from you about this when you retire.
The option to increase the lump sum applies to all forms of retirement so we always give details of this option at the payment stage.
But if you do want to check for yourself how the current rules on maximum lump sum apply to your forecast, see our online benefits calculator.
Online Benefits Calculator
- To work out the maximum lump sum based on estimated benefits at 31/03/2011, you will need to input the membership up to that date shown on the forecast in the ‘About You’ section.
- To work out the maximum lump sum based on estimated benefits to age 65, you will need to input your membership to 31/03/2008 and the membership you could build up from 01/04/2008 to age 65, based on the hours you have worked since then and what you expect to continue working and assuming you don't have any breaks in membership in the future.
 Please note our on-line calculator is only intended to give you a rough guide of your benefits and maximum lump sum. Decisions must not be made based on these results.
There are only two categories that this can apply to:
- If you were aged between 60 and 65 on 31/03/2011 and have not reached your 85 year date, then the benefits at 31/03/2011 will be shown with early retirement reductions (i.e. as if you had retired then). The lump sum at age 65 is the same amount as that shown on 31/03/2011 but without the reductions (as benefits are paid in full at 65).
- If you are buying extra membership and were under age 45 when you started paying into the scheme then those added years count for both pension and lump sum under the old scheme. Also, there are a few married men with membership prior to 01/04/1972 who originally paid extra contributions to avoid a reduction to their lump sum. These contracts were changed in 1997 so they are now buying a small amount of extra membership that counts for both pension and lump sum.
This should only be the case if you are already 65 or over. We don’t show any amounts in this section, as the benefits at 31/03/2011 are a better indication of what you could expect to receive if you were to retire. Remember though, you have built up more membership since then and both your eventual pension and lump sum will be further increased for late retirement. Currently, the increases are 0.01% per day on the lump sum and 0.02% per day on the pension. These equate to 3.6% on the lump sum and 7.3% on the pension for every year you delay retirement after age 65.
Yes.
Voluntary retirement
The minimum retirement age of the scheme is 55 so you may be able to draw your benefits from then but only if you have your employer’s permission.
You can, however, choose to draw your benefits from age 60 and you don’t need your employer’s permission to do this.
But remember, taking your benefits before age 65 can result in a reduced pension and lump sum. Reductions can apply depending on when you joined the scheme, how much membership you have and how old you are along with what degree of transitional protections you may have from the removal of the 85 year rule. If you would like more information about the transitional protection you may have from the removal of the 85 year rule, please contact the helpline.
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Ill health retirement
We can pay benefits at any age and they will be paid in full, subject to you meeting certain criteria. You must be permanently unable to do your own job and have a reduced likelihood of being able to take up ‘gainful employment’ in the future.
Retiring on Ill Health
Redundancy or interests of efficiency retirement
If you are at least age 55 or over and your employer makes you redundant or you retire in the interests of your employer’s business efficiency, we will automatically pay your benefits in full.
Flexible retirement
From age 55 or over, your employer can allow you to reduce your hours or move to a lower grade and draw all or part of your pension benefits whilst carrying on working. But your benefits could still be reduced for early payment if you take them before age 65.
The rules on this are changing. The default retirement age of 65 was scrapped on 1 October 2011. Employers can still insist on a retirement age but this has to be justified, not just that they want to. Your HR department will have details of your employers policy. Direct.gov has more information on this subject.
Direct.gov
Retirement age is an employment issue so all decisions are made by the employer. The pension scheme can only insist that retirement benefits are paid before age 75, even if the employment is continuing.
Even if you do not continue working after age 65, you can ask us to keep hold of your benefits and pay it at a later date but payment can be no later than the day before your 75th birthday.
If we don’t pay you your pension benefits at age 65, they will be increased for delayed retirement. Currently the increases are 0.01% per day on the lump sum and 0.02% per day on the pension. These equate to 3.6% on the lump sum and 7.3% on the pension for every year you delay retirement after age 65.
Pension benefits in the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) are based on membership and final pay. They are not affected by the value of the Pension Fund, which goes up and down as it receives contributions and pays benefits, and as investment markets rise and fall.
Every three years the Fund's assets are valued (its investments) as are its liabilities (existing and future pensions). At the last valuation in 2007 the Fund was 100% funded, meaning that it had £1 of assets for every £1 of liabilities. Although this means a deficit of £390m, it still makes it one of the best-funded pension schemes in the country.
Investment Valuation Report  (1.2 MB)
The Local Government Pension Scheme was created in 1922 and over the decades has seen huge swings in the value of investments markets, both up and down. The recent ups and downs do not affect our ability to pay pensions.
If you die before you retire, and even sometimes on pension, we will pay out a one off lump sum. You can have your say over whom you would like this to go to by filling in a lump sum nomination form. You can nominate whoever you like to receive the lump sum - family, partners, friends, even an organisation such as your favourite charity.
You don’t have to make a nomination if you don’t want to but please think about it seriously, as it’s the best way of letting us know your wishes. It’s also easy to change your mind at any time, by simply filling in a new lump sum nomination form. This is something you should think about if your circumstances change, for example someone you’ve named dies first, or you get divorced.
We will always give great weight to your nomination, and will generally follow it unless this isn’t possible, or we feel there are exceptional circumstances. An example of when we can’t follow your nomination is if a beneficiary has died, or we can’t trace them within two years.
And there will always be a short delay to allow for any claims from family or dependants who wouldn’t benefit if we followed your nomination. But they would have to put forward an exceptionally strong case for us to pay them instead.
Making a lump sum nomination
Only if you nominate them to receive a pension on your death.
A survivor’s pension is only automatic for those who are married or in a registered civil partnership. Pensions for ‘common law’ partners have to be applied for and this applies to both same sex and different sex partnerships.
There are certain conditions attached to this, the main one being that you have lived together for two years, but completing the form is a straightforward matter.
We still get cases where a member dies having lived with someone for years and we cannot pay them a pension because the member did not complete a simple form.
Nominating a co-habiting partner
You don’t have to let us know about this as the survivor’s pension is automatic if a member was in a registered civil partnership at the time of their death. There used to be different amounts payable to widows, widowers and civil partnerships but this was changed so that all three pensions are the same.
Unless we know that you’re in a civil partnership, you have nominated a partner you are living with, or you are a man who joined the scheme before 1st April 1972 and you have told us you are single we assume that you’re married. This is because well over 100,000 members pay into the scheme and it would be extremely difficult to keep our records up to date with each person’s marital status throughout their membership. We normally only need to know your marital status if you are transferring your benefits out to an external pension scheme, when you retire and when you die.
And even if you are single now, you may get married in the future so we think it is worthwhile including information about survivor’s benefits in everybody’s forecast.
However, to give you a more accurate estimate of survivor’s benefits, we must be kept up to date with your marital status if you have nominated a co-habiting partner.
If you have recently transferred from one employer in the GMPF to another within our Fund and your pay seems low the reason for this is probably because we have only received your pay details for one of the employers. In these cases please contact the Helpline to confirm this is the case and the Helpline will arrange for a new Pension Forecast to be sent to you once the pay details have been received from your second employer.
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