Secure benefits: the Scheme provides you with a guaranteed income in retirement. Your pension is based on your pensionable pay and how long you’ve been a member, not investment performance.
Protection against inflation: your pension is adjusted each year to keep up with the cost of living.
Your Scheme employer pays in too: the Scheme is provided by your Scheme employer who meets the balance of the cost of providing your benefits in the LGPS.
You can look forward to your retirement in the LGPS with:
Your pension is worked out every year and added to your pension account. Each year 1/49th of your pensionable pay is put into your pension account. At the end of that year the total amount of pension in your account is adjusted in line with changes in the cost of living, as measured by the Consumer Prices Index (C P I). The Scheme year runs from 1 April to 31 March.
You can boost your pension by paying more contributions, with tax relief. You also have the option to pay half your normal contributions in return for half your normal pension. This is known as the 50/50 section of the Scheme. The 50/50 section is designed to help members stay in the Scheme when times are financially tough.
When you take your pension, you can swap part of it for some tax-free cash.
Your family enjoys financial security, with immediate life cover and a pension for your spouse, civil partner or eligible cohabiting partner and eligible children if you die in service. If you become seriously ill and you've met the two-year qualifying period, you could receive immediate ill health benefits.
You do not need to have reached your Normal Pension Age to take your pension. Once you've met the two-year qualifying period, you can choose to retire and take your pension at any time between age 55 and 75. Your Normal Pension Age is the age you can retire and take the pension you've built up in full. If you choose to take your pension before your Normal Pension Age, it will be reduced, as it's being paid earlier. If you take it later than your Normal Pension Age, it's increased because it's being paid later.
The Government has announced that the earliest age you can take your pension will increase from 55 to 57 from 6 April 2028. Find out more in the Pension age changes section.