Is my pension affected if I return to work?
Your pension is not affected if you return to work, unless you have been retired by reason of ill-health, efficiency, redundancy or your employer has agreed to the early release of your pension on leaving.
If this is the case then if you take up further employment with an employer which participates in the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS), your pension may be reduced or suspended if the combined annual income from your new employment and your pension exceeds your pay immediately before your retirement.
If you do become employed under the conditions above, you are required by the LGPS regulations to:
- tell your employer that you have a pension from the LGPS, and
- write to the Avon Pension Fund giving full details of your further employment.
If you don’t do this your pension may be overpaid and you will have to pay the money back.
If you do take up further employment under which you could join the LGPS again, then any pension you receive which was awarded by the granting of Added Years if you were retired because of redundancy or efficiency may be adjusted on your eventual retirement, whether or not you re-join the LGPS.
Will my pension be reduced or suspended?
Avon Pension Fund will need to check to see how much of your Local Government Pension you can keep during your further period of employment. This may be:
- Your full pension: if your ‘pay’ plus your Local Government Pension is no more than your contractual pay when you retired
- A reduced pension: if your ‘pay’ plus your Local Government Pension is more than your contractual pay when you retired
- No pension: if your ‘pay’ is the same as or more than your contractual pay when you retired.
Changes that you should tell Avon Pension Fund about
The amount of your Local Government Pension you can keep while you work may change if you have:
- A pay rise backdated to when you started your post-retirement work.
- A change in the conditions of your post-retirement work e.g. a pay increase due to promotion or a change in the number of contractual hours you work.
You must notify the Avon Pension Fund if these changes apply.