Frequently Asked Questions if you joined the LGPS before 1 April 2014

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What counts towards membership in the Scheme before 1 April 2014?

How long you have been a member of the LGPS before 1 April 2014 is worked out in years and days.

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What counts towards final pay to work out your benefits in the LGPS before 1 April 2014?

Whilst the LGPS changed on 1 April 2014, protection is in place to ensure that your final pay is used when you leave to work out your pension for the membership you built up to 31 March 2014.

For more information, please click here.

What if I am paying extra contributions?

What reductions are applied to my benefits built up before 1 April 2014 if I draw them before my protected Normal Pension Age?

If you choose to retire before your protected Normal Pension Age your benefits built up before 1 April 2014 will be reduced to take account of being paid for longer.

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What increase is applied to my benefits built up before 1 April 2014 if I draw them after age 65?

The benefits you have built up before 1 April 2014 will be increased if you draw them after age 65.

The rate of increase for pre-1 April 2014 benefits drawn after age 65 is a 0.010% increase on the pension for each day the pension is drawn later than age 65 and a 0.001% increase on the automatic lump sum for any pre-1 April 2008 membership for each day that lump sum is drawn later than age 65.

Please be aware that your pension has to be paid by your 75th birthday.

Also, all pension benefits, if drawn voluntarily, must be drawn at the same time, irrespective of whether they were built up in the career average scheme or the final salary scheme.

What if I am made redundant?

If you are aged 55 or over, were a member of the LGPS before 1 April 2014 and are made redundant or leave for reasons of business efficiency after 1 April 2014, you must meet the 2 years vesting period to be entitled to receive your benefits immediately and without actuarial reduction.

If you do not meet the 2 years vesting period and are made redundant after 31 March 2014, you will be entitled to a refund of your contributions, a deferred benefit, or you can transfer your benefits to another pension scheme.

What if I have to retire on grounds of ill health?

You are not entitled to immediate payment of ill health pension benefits if your ill-health retirement occurs after 31 March 2014 and you do not meet the 2 years vesting period.

You will, instead, be entitled to a refund of your contributions, a deferred benefit, or you can transfer your benefits to another pension scheme.

If you were paying into the LGPS on 31 March 2008, and were aged 45 or over on that date and have been in continuous membership of the LGPS, then if you qualify for an ill-health pension where your benefits are based on enhanced membership there is protection to ensure your ill health retirement benefits are no less than they would have been under the scheme as it applied before 1 April 2008.

This protection would not apply if you have previously drawn benefits on taking flexible retirement.

Do I have underpin protection?

If you were a member of the LGPS before 1 April 2014 there are additional protections in place if you are nearing retirement. This is to ensure that you will get a pension at least equal to that which you would have received in the Scheme had it not changed on the 1 April 2014.

For more information, please click here.