If you wish to opt out with 3 or more months membership

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If you opt out of the LGPS with 3 or more months membership and before completing the 2 years vesting period, you can take a refund of your contributions (less any statutory deductions) or transfer out your pension to another scheme.
 
If you opt out of the LGPS after meeting the 2 years vesting period, you will have deferred benefits in the Scheme and will generally have the same options as anyone leaving their job before retirement, (except that you cannot draw your deferred benefits unless you have left your job. Also, if you re-join the scheme, you will not be permitted to join the two periods of membership together. Instead, you will have two separate sets of pension benefits in the LGPS).
 
To opt out, you must request an election form from the Fund, complete it and return to your employer.
 
Please Note:
If you opt out of the LGPS:
 
  • on the date your employer is first required to comply with the automatic enrolment provisions under the Pensions Act 2008, your employer will automatically enrol you back into the LGPS if you are an eligible jobholder at that time in the job you’ve opted out from, or
 
  • if on the date your employer is first required to comply with the automatic enrolment provisions under the Pensions Act 2008, you are not an eligible jobholder at that time in the job you opted out from, your employer will, if you subsequently become an eligible jobholder in that job, automatically enrol you back into the LGPS from the automatic enrolment date.
 
Your employer must notify you if this happens. You would then have the right to opt out of the LGPS.  
 
If you choose not to be a member of the LGPS, your employer will normally automatically enrol you back into the LGPS approximately every 3 years from the date they have to comply with the automatic re-enrolment provisions.