Pension built up before 1 April 2014
Printer-friendly versionAll of the pension you built up in the LGPS before 1 April 2014 is fully protected.
This means that your pension, based on your membership built up to 31 March 2014, will continue to be based on your final pay when you leave.
Your Normal Pension Age is also protected. This means that the benefits you build up before April 2014 retain their Normal Pension Age under final salary scheme rules, which for almost all members is age 65.
Membership
All the membership that you built up in the Scheme before 1 April 2014 will be used to calculate your benefits on a final salary basis. Only membership that you build up from April 2014 onwards is calculated under the rules of the new career average scheme.
Final Pay
The definition of final pay for benefits built up before April 2014 remains the same as it was before the Scheme changed. Your final pay is normally the pay in respect of your final year of scheme membership on which you paid contributions, or one of the previous 2 years if this is higher.
If your pay is reduced, or increases to your pay are restricted in your last 10 years of continuous employment with your employer, you continue to have the option to have all your pre-April 2014 membership based on the average of any 3 consecutive years’ pay in the last 13 years (ending on a 31 March).
If you have a certificate of protection which was issued by your employer for a reduction or restriction in pay beyond your control before 1 April 2008 and you leave the LGPS within 10 years of the reduction or restriction, then this protection continues to apply after April 2014 for benefits built up in the final salary scheme.
Protected Normal Pension Age
Your pension built up before 1 April 2014 has a protected Normal Pension Age, which for almost all is age 65. If you retire and draw all of your pension at your protected Normal Pension Age, the pension built up in the Scheme before 1 April 2014 will be paid in full.
If you choose to take your pension before your protected Normal Pension Age the pension you have built up in the Scheme before 1 April 2014 will normally be reduced, as it’s being paid earlier. If you take it later than your protected Normal Pension Age it will be increased because it’s being paid later.
The amount of any reduction or increase will be based on how many years earlier or later than your protected Normal Pension Age you draw the pension you have built up in the Scheme to 31 March 2014.
The benefits you build up in the LGPS from April 2014 have a Normal Pension Age linked to your State Pension Age (but with a minimum age of 65).
You cannot take your benefits built up to April 2014 separately from the benefits you build up from April 2014. All your pension would have to be drawn at the same time (except in the case of Flexible Retirement).