These notes have been designed to accompany your Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) Annual Deferred Pension Statement 2026. It helps to explain the various sections of the statement. However, these notes cannot cover every personal circumstance and in the event of any dispute over your statement, the appropriate legislation will prevail. They do NOT confer any contractual or statutory rights and are provided for information purposes only.
Please check that these details are correct. If they are not, then please contact the Fund.
Email address
Your email address is important if you have elected to receive communications from us digitally. Please ensure this is kept up to date and is a personal email address.
Partnership status
Your partnership status on this statement has been taken from our records. If these details are incorrect, or if your partnership status has changed, please contact the Fund. It is important that we are kept informed of any changes to your status as it may affect your partner’s entitlement (if any) to a survivor’s pension in the event of your death.
Date of joining and leaving
These are the dates your employer told us that you joined and left the pension scheme for this employment. If your date of leaving is after 31 March 2014, the date that your benefits will be payable unreduced will be age 65 or your State Pension age, whichever is the later, unless you are protected under the rule of 85. Please note this may change as and when the Government changes State Pension Age.
Date unreduced benefits payable from
This is the date when your deferred benefits become payable to you without actuarial reduction. If your benefits are brought into payment before your normal pension age they will be reduced for early payment.
Annual pension
This is the current value of your deferred annual pension at 6 April 2026. It shows the annual pension and includes the cost of living increase.
How your deferred benefits are calculated:
If you left the LGPS before 1 April 2014, your Final Salary benefits will have been based on your membership to the date of leaving and your full time equivalent final pay. Your annual pension will have been calculated as:
1/80th x your membership to 31 March 2008 (if applicable) x your final pay; plus
1/60th x your membership from 1 April 2008 to 31 March 2014 (if applicable) x your final pay.
If you left after 31 March 2014, your Career Average Revalued Earnings (CARE) benefits for the period from 1 April 2014 to your date of leaving will be calculated as:
1/49th (or 1/98th if in the 50/50 section) x the CARE pensionable pay received during this period.
If you paid Additional Pension Contributions (APC) / Shared-Cost APC / Additional Regular Contributions (ARC) or if you purchased Added Years, the proportionate value of your contract has been included in your benefits.
If you made Additional Voluntary Contributions (AVC), you will receive a separate statement from the AVC provider.
Automatic tax free lump sum (if applicable)
For membership before 1 April 2008, you will automatically receive a lump sum based on three times your 80ths pension. However, if you joined after 1 April 2008, you won’t receive an automatic tax-free lump sum, but you will have the option to give up some of your pension for tax-free cash when you retire.
Annual survivor (partner/spouse’s) pension
This is the current value of a survivor’s pension if, when you die, you are married/have a civil partner or eligible cohabiting partner.
Expression of wish nomination form held (for your death grant)
It is important to check this statement to see if you have made a nomination as to who you would like your lump sum death grant to be paid.
You can nominate whoever you wish to receive your death grant but please remember that as this is an expression of wish it is not legally binding as the Fund has absolute discretion.
You should note that legislation was recently laid in the Finance Act 2026 and inheritance tax rules are changing for all pension schemes from 6 April 2027. From this date, if you nominate someone other than your married spouse or civil partner, a death grant due may be subject to inheritance tax depending on the total value of your estate.
Tell us if you would like to make or change the nomination we hold for you.
When can you claim your pension benefits?
If you left the LGPS after 31 March 2014, your Normal Pension Age (NPA) will be linked to your State Pension Age (minimum age 65) and the date unreduced benefits payable from shown under Section 1 may therefore change in the future. If you left before 1 April 2014, your NPA will more than likely be age 65.
Benefits can be taken before your NPA, but they will be actuarially reduced according to the number of years you retire before your NPA, for they would be paid over a longer period. You will need to contact us if you want to take your benefits earlier than your NPA.
Currently the minimum pension age for pension schemes is age 55, but you should note that with effect from 6 April 2028 the new minimum age will increase from age 55 to 57. At this present time, it is unknown whether the LGPS will allow any protection for an earlier retirement once these regulations come into effect.
Your benefits must be paid before age 75.
Re-joining the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS)
If you re-join or have already re-joined the LGPS in another Fund in England or Wales, you must:
Items (a) and (b) are required to ensure that you are given the appropriate options regarding the aggregation of your benefits. Failure to comply with item (c) could lead to certain statutory rights not being applied to your circumstances.
McCloud Remedy Protection
McCloud Judgment and underpin pensions
Following the age discrimination case commonly known as McCloud, your pension has been tested to see if you are affected by the judgment. If you are a qualifying and protected member and entitled to additional pension (known as the underpin) your statement will confirm this protection and the estimated underpin will be included in the annual pension and annual survivor pension figures shown on the statement (See section 2).
An underpin amount will only be included if the notional pension calculated for the final salary scheme is higher than that of the pension accrued under the CARE Scheme. The underpin is the difference between the two values where the notional final salary pension is greater.
For the majority of members, the estimated underpin amount is zero. This is because the CARE pension accrued is higher than it would have been in the final salary scheme, due to the CARE scheme having a better accrual rate (1/49 pension accrual versus 1/60 under the final salary scheme).
This estimated underpin pension value is based on the pay information at date of leaving and is then revalued annually each year in line with the pension increase. We will work out the actual figure when you take your pension. Please note, if you retire earlier than your normal pension age under the scheme, an early retirement factor will be applied which will impact the underpin calculation. The final value could be higher or lower than the amount included in the statement, or it could remove the underpin altogether. Any underpin value that is currently showing is not guaranteed.
The dates of your membership within the Avon Pension Fund are shown on your statement, and ‘other service’ dates held can be viewed at your online pension account.
If our records show that you are not protected, your statement will confirm this.
However, you may be protected if you were a member of the LGPS or another public service pension scheme before your current membership started. If you have not yet let us know about this other service, you can complete Public service pensions history form.
The key dates for McCloud qualification and protection are:
Find out more about the McCloud judgement.
Pension sharing on divorce or scheme pays debits
If your pension is subject to:
then the debit will not have been deducted from your annual pension amount on your statement. We will write to you separately with the debit figures if our records show you have one of these debits on your record.
Additional Voluntary Contributions (AVCs)
If you paid into an AVC arrangement whilst a member of the Avon Pension Fund, then your AVC provider will be sending you a separate statement.
Pension Scams
Pension Scams are becoming more credible, and scammers are using more sophisticated ways to communicate with members. Please make sure you keep your pension safe. If you are approached about your pension and about transferring this away from the Local Government Pension Scheme, we recommend you refer to our pension scams information and Pension Scams Action Group (PSAG) Scam safe leaflet (PDF, 155.77KB).
Don’t become a victim of a pensions scam.
