Discretion

This is the power given by the LGPS to enable your employer or the Fund to choose how they will apply the Scheme in respect of certain provisions.

In the LGPS both your employer and the Fund are obliged to consider how to exercise their discretion and, in respect of some (but not all) of these discretionary provisions, to have a written policy on how they will apply their discretion.

They have a responsibility to act with ‘prudence and propriety’ in formulating their policies and must keep them under review. You may ask both the Fund and your employer what their policy is in relation to a particular discretion.