The McCloud remedy and your LGPS pension

19 December 2023

The rules of the pension scheme changed on 1 October 2023 to address age discrimination. You may qualify for underpin protection if you were an active member of the LGPS on or before 1 April 2012 and active between 1 April 2014 and 31 March 2022. If you do qualify for underpin protection, you do not need to do anything we will write to you in due course.

Calling for action on climate change at COP28

12 December 2023

Councillor Paul Crossley, Chair of the Avon Pension Fund Committee and Councillor Shaun Stephenson-McGall, Committee Vice-Chair and Chair of the Investment Panel, are signatories to a letter calling for action on the global stocktake.

Changes to the annual revaluation date of the LGPS for active members

19 April 2023

On 9 March 2023, the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) laid the LGPS (Amendment) Regulations 2023 (‘the regulations’). The regulations move the annual revaluation date from 1 April to 6 April. The regulations are effective from 31 March 2023.

Pensions Dashboards

31 March 2023

The Government is launching a new initiative which will allow users to securely view all their pension savings in one place. Savers will be able to choose from a range of Pensions Dashboards and, after verifying their identity, users will be able to trigger a secure digital search across virtually the entire pensions industry. A summary of the pensions found will be displayed back to the user on their smart phone, tablet, or desktop browser.

SCAPE discount rate and Impact on actuarial factors

30 March 2023

The SCAPE discount rate is used to set the employer contribution rates in the unfunded public sector pension schemes and to determine the actuarial factors across all public sector schemes. The discount rate was reduced on 30 March 2023 to the consumer price index (CPI) plus 1.7% from CPI plus 2.4%.

Government announces changes to Lifetime Allowance and Annual Allowance from 6 April 2023

15 March 2023

The current lifetime allowance of £1,073,100 is being removed from 6th April 2023 and abolished all together from 6th April 2024. The maximum amount of tax-free lump sum that you can withdraw from a pension will remain at £268,275 (25% of the current lifetime allowance of £1,073,100) unless you have a valid (enhanced) protection in place before 6th April 2023.