Avon Pension Fund
Administered by Bath and North East Somerset Council
Administered by Bath and North East Somerset Council
Glossary & Definitions| Active Member | An employee who is currently paying pension contributions. |
| Actual Service | This is used to assess your entitlement to receive benefits and means the calendar length of your employment while a member of the LGPS, plus the calendar length of any service transferred into the LGPS from a previous employer's scheme In certain circumstances it may also include previous part-time or non contributory service. |
| Admitted Body | Means a body which can be admitted to the LGPS with the agreement of the Administering Authority, It must be non profit-making and will normally be in receipt of a grant from either central or local government. |
| Annuity | An amount of additional pension benefit. When you buy an annuity you can choose the type of pension that best suits your circumstances. |
| AVC | Additional Voluntary Contribution |
| Casual Employee | A member of staff who is employed to work on a as and when required' basis, with no fixed days or hours. |
| Deferred Pensioner | A former member of the LGPS who has left the Scheme, but still has benefits in the Scheme and will collect a pension from the LGPS on retirement. |
| Earnings Threshold | For the tax year 2004/2005 the figure is 3,600. A Treasury Order may amend this figure every year. |
| Final Pensionable Pay | Usually means the earnings on which you
pay contributions during the 12 months before leaving the LGPS
(including any Pensionable Pay lost through sickness), or the
better of the two previous years if this gives a higher figure. For part-time employees, it usually means the pay of an equivalent full-time post. If your pay has been reduced through circumstances beyond your control within the last 13 years and you have received a certificate from your employer confirming this, your Final Pensionable Pay will be either the best year from your last 5 or the best 3 year average from the last 13 years. |
|
Normal Retirement Age |
This is normally your 65th birthday
(unless you have accrued service while working as: a councillor;
a coroner or a justices' clerk) If you were a member of the LGPS before 1st April 1998 and were not employed in one of the occupations listed above, your normal retirement age is the earlier of: - Your 60th birthday if you have, or would have, accrued 25 years total membership by the day before that birthday, or - the day after the date between your 60th and 65th birthdays when you have, or would have, accrued 25 years total membership, or - your 65th birthday. |
| Pensionable Pay | Means your normal pay, plus any shift allowances, bonuses, contractual overtime and statutory sick pay. |
| Pensionable Service | This is used to calculate the amount of your benefits and means the number of years you have been a member of the LGPS, plus any Transferred Service from previous membership of another pension scheme. It may include any added years of service bought with additional contributions, and non-contributory service prior to 1973. For part-time employees, it means the appropriate fraction of full time service. |
| Personal Pension | A personal pension plan is usually purchased from a financial services company, such as an insurance company, bank, investment company or building society. You usually pay into the plan every month and your employer can also contribute to you plan. The money in your pension is invested to pay for a pension when you are older. However, charges to your pension scheme provider may have to be made. You will normally get tax relief on your contributions to a private pension scheme. This is available to everyone who pays into a personal pension scheme, even those who do not pay tax. Refer to www.thepensionservice.gov.uk for further details. |
| Rule of 85 | When a member elects to retire before age 65, the Rule of 85 test is used to find out whether the member retires on full or reduced benefits. The agreement of the employer is required for employees who wish to retire before the age of 60. If the sum of the members age and the number of whole years of their Scheme membership is 85 or more, benefits are paid in full; if the total is less than 85, the benefits will be reduced. The employer does, however, have the power to waive the reduction on compassionate grounds and to pay the benefits in full. The Rule of 85 is not relevant where a member is made redundant, is retired on grounds of efficiency or ill health. |
| Scheduled Body | Means a body which is either statutorily obliged to join the LGPS or, in the case of parish councils, has a statutory right to do so. |
| SERPS | Means State Earnings Related Pension Scheme. The benefits available from a contracted-out pension scheme must be broadly similar to, or better than, those available from SERPS. |
| Spouse | Your husband or wife to whom you are legally married. |
| Stakeholder Pension | These are new, low-cost private pensions, available from 6 April 2001. They are meant for people who currently do not have a good range of pension options available to save for their retirement. You use your own money to build up your pension fund. Your stakeholder pension scheme will put your contributions into investments such as stocks and shares for you. When you retire, you will use your fund to buy a pension from a pension provider. Refer to www.thepensionservice.gov.uk for more information. |
| Transferred Service | Any pension that you have transferred into the LGPS from a previous pension arrangement that now counts towards your LGPS membership (See Pensionable Service) which also counts towards Rule of 85. |