A: If you have a contract of employment which is for 3 months or more you are eligible to join the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS), if you are under the age of 75 and are employed by a Local Authority or any other employer that has chosen to participate in the LGPS. There are no restrictions on the minimum number of hours you must work to be eligible to join.

All Local Government employees are* automatically entered into Scheme membership.

If your contract of employment is for less than 3 months or you are age 75 or over you cannot join the Scheme. However if your contract is extended beyond 3 months you will join the Scheme automatically and you will have the option to pay pension contributions back to the date when you originally started.

*Please note that automatic entry or the option to back date contributions will not take place if you work for an employer which is classed as a designated or admitted body.

A: If you are a part-time employee then your contribution band will be worked out using the 'whole time' equivalent pay of a full time employee in the same post.

If you are a 'term-time' only employee then your contribution band will be calculated on your actual pay.

If you are a 'part-time, term-time' employee then the contribution band will be worked out using the actual pay as if you were a 'full-time, term-time' employee.

Your contribution band will be determined on your full time equivalent pay on 1 April each year. The bands are shown here: Membership Pay Bands

A: Your employer makes a contribution to the pension fund as determined by the Fund's Actuary. The contribution is reassessed every three years.

A: You can leave the LGPS at any time by giving your employer notice in writing. If you opt-out, you can opt back into the Scheme provided at that time you have a contract of employment that’s for at least three months and you are under 75. You may wish to obtain independent financial advice before you make a decision to opt-out of the LGPS.

A: Only if you leave the Scheme before you have accrued 3 months membership. In this case, you will receive a refund of your contributions, less your share of the cost of buying you back into the State Second Pension (S2P). Your refund will be subject to taxation at 20%. If you do not pay tax, you can claim back the tax we deduct from you via a self assessment tax form.

If you have transferred benefits into the Scheme from elsewhere, you will not be able to take a refund of contributions, even if you have accrued less than 3 months membership.

A: The LGPS does not allow a refund of contributions to be made where: (i)the member leaves the pension Scheme and rejoins within one month and one day of ceasing the earlier period of membership, or (ii) the member has over three months membership in the LGPS or has a preserved benefit entitlement with another Local Government Pension Fund, or (iii) the member has transferred previous pension rights into the LGPS.

A: Yes. The pension section will need to contact your former pension provider and ask them for a current 'transfer value' of the benefits held in their fund. No formal transfer of monies will take place until the pensions section have written authority from yourself that you wish the transfer to proceed. For further information please contact the fund. Application to investigate a transfer must be made within 12 months of commencement of Pensionable employment.

A: There are no defined period and, as different organisations [employers, pension providers, Contribution Agency] may need to be involved, some transfers can take longer time to complete.

A: Yes, you can take a transfer payment equivalent to your preserved pension at any time from leaving the Scheme up to one year before your Normal Retirement Date. The transfer payment is available for you to purchase benefits in:

• a new employer’s scheme
• a buy-out policy from an approved insurance company or
• a personal or stakeholder pension arrangement

If you are absent due to sickness and you are receiving sick pay, your employer will deduct contributions from your pay so that you keep up your membership of the Scheme. If you are off sick with reduced pay or without pay, your employer must treat this time as a period of membership in the Scheme with entitlement to membership benefits.

If you take authorised unpaid leave of less than 31 days, you will have to pay your normal contributions on the pay you would have received. If your leave is for 31 days or more, your must pay contributions for the first 30 days. You can opt to pay contributions from the 31st day onwards to avoid a break in Scheme membership, provided you do so within 30 days of your return to work.

If you are not paid for a period of unauthorised absence, this period will not count towards your pension. If the unauthorised absence was because of an industrial dispute, you can count it as a period of membership if you pay 16% of the pay you would have received during the period of absence. The amount you pay is set in the Regulations and is higher than normal because you have to pay the contributions that your employer normally pays. You must write to your employer within 30 days of the end of the dispute if you want to pay these contributions.

If you take maternity leave you will normally be entitled to count the first 39 weeks of your maternity leave towards your Scheme membership. This applies whether you are in receipt of Occupational or Statutory Maternity Pay. If you are in receipt of Occupational or Statutory Maternity Pay, contributions will be taken from your pay.

If you continue your maternity leave for more than 39 weeks (unpaid) you can opt to pay contributions (as if you were receiving maternity pay) to cover the unpaid period. You will have 30 days from the date you return to work to decide whether you want to pay the extra contributions. If you do not pay the contributions the unpaid period will not count as membership of the scheme.

You can, with your employer's agreement, take unpaid parental leave. If you want this period to count as a period of membership you will have to pay contributions as for unpaid leave.

A: To increase the value of the benefits that you and your dependants receive, you may:

Make Additional Regular Contributions (ARCs)
 You can pay ARCs to buy additional annual pension in proportions of £250 per annum, up to a maximum of £5,000 per annum. The additional contributions attract tax relief and the cost depends on your age and the length of your payment period. This period must not go beyond your normal retirement age.

Further information on ARC's can be found here: ARC Calculator

Make Additional Voluntary Contributions (AVCs)
You can pay Additional Voluntary Contributions into the fund's nominated AVC provider Friends Provident.

The maximum contribution per year you can pay into a LGPS AVC Fund is 50% of your pensionable earnings.

The contributions are invested separately from the Scheme and you will have your own personal investment account. There are restrictions as to when you can receive your investment. You can opt to invest in an AVC of your choosing (known as a Free Standing AVC) or through the funds nominated AVC provider (Friends Provident).

At retirement the accumulated fund in your in-house AVC account can be used to buy an annuity from an insurance company, bank or building society (but you can defer purchasing an annuity until the day before your 75th birthday at the latest) or to purchase membership in the LGPS (subject to certain eligibility criteria).

If you carry on contributing to the LGPS beyond age 65 you will not be able to purchase an annuity until: You retire, or You reach the eve of your 75th birthday.