What happens if I am on sick leave?

If you are off work due to sickness or injury and your contractual pay is reduced or you don’t receive any pay, then the pensionable pay figure used to work out your pension for this period is your assumed pensionable pay.

Using your assumed pensionable pay, rather than the amount of pensionable pay you actually receive when on sick leave, means that you will continue to build up a pension in the section of the LGPS you are in, as if you were working normally and receiving pay.

You will continue to pay your basic LGPS contributions on any pay that you receive while you are off sick (before any reduction on account of Statutory Sick Pay or Incapacity Benefit). If you are on unpaid sick leave, you will not pay any contributions.

If you are in the 50/50 section and go onto unpaid sick leave, you will automatically be moved to the main section of the scheme from the beginning of the next pay period if you are still on no pay at that time.

This means from that point forward you will build up full pension benefits in the LGPS even though you are not paying pension contributions.