How is my pension paid?
Your pension will be paid on the last banking day of every calendar month.
Payments go automatically into your bank, building society or national girobank account.
You will receive payslips in March, April and May. For the rest of the year our payroll system will normally only produce a payslip if your monthly net amount varies by more than £5 from the previous month. Your pension will be paid whether you receive a payslip or not.
Once we start paying your pension it is payable for life.
Do I get an annual pension increase?
To protect your pension against inflation your pension will be increased after 5 April each year, providing:
- you are aged 55 or over, or
- you have retired through ill health.
If you are under 55 and have retired because of redundancy or in the interests of efficiency, your pension will not be increased before your 55th birthday, unless you become permanently unfit for full-time work before then. When you reach 55 your pension will be recalculated to take into consideration all the increases since you retired.
Increases are fixed by the Government and are normally the same percentages as those applied to state pensions.
Details of the annual increase will be sent to you each year.
Do I have to pay tax on my pension?
If your membership of the LGPS dates from before 1 April 2008, you will receive a tax free lump sum for the membership built up before that date. If you retired on 1 April 2008 or later and opt to convert part of your annual pension into a lump sum, this will also be tax free. However, all subsequent monthly pension payments are taxable.
On your retirement your employer will normally send your P45 to our pensions administrator, Serco, so that your tax code can be applied to your pension. If your P45 is sent to you in error please forward it to Serco.
You will receive a P60 each April. This will show your earnings and tax deductions for the last tax year.
Any queries regarding tax codes or income tax should be addressed directly to the Tax Office. If you need to contact the Tax Office, remember to quote your National Insurance number and the pension scheme tax reference number: 334/EZ61724.
The Tax Office which will deal with your pension is:
HM Revenue & Customs
Sussex Area
Ocean House
87-89 London Road
St Leonard's on Sea TN37 6AD
Phone: 0845 366 7856
What happens if I get another job?
If you get a new permanent, temporary or even casual job you must write to Serco to let them know, even if you do not join a pension scheme in the new job.
If you don't tell Serco that you have become re-employed, you may get paid too much.
We have an abatement policy, where your pension payments may be reduced or suspended if the sum of the pay being received in your new job plus your pension payment is more than the current value of the pay in your previous job.
What happens if I die whilst in retirement?
If you retired on 31 March 2008 or earlier and you die before receiving your pension for five years and before age 75, a death grant of five times your pension, minus all pension payments already made to you, will be payable.
If you retired on 1 April 2008 or later and you die before receiving your pension for 10 years and before age 75, a death grant of 10 times your pension, minus all pension payments already made to you, will be payable.
If you are a married man and you retire on or before 31 March 2008, your wife will get a pension equal to your own rate of pension for the first three months following your death. She will then convert to a long-term pension generally equal to half of your pension.
If you are a married woman and you retired on or before 31 March 2008, your husband will get a short-term pension for the first three months following your death. This pension will be equal to the amount of your pension after April 1988 plus any membership prior to that which you had elected to convert to provide widower's benefits. A long-term pension will become payable after three months and will generally be half of the short-term pension.
If you have retired on or since 1 April 2008, and die before you have received your pension for 10 years, your spouse, civil partner or nominated cohabiting partner will receive a pension of 1/160th of your final pay for each year of LGPS membership. This is counted from when you joined the Scheme, unless this date is before 1 April 1972 for widowers, or 6 April 1988 for civil partners and nominated cohabitating partners. In these cases your service will be counted from the later date.
If you marry or re-marry after leaving, your wife's or husband's pension may be reduced, depending on your date of entry to the LGPS.
The long-term spouse's pension is payable for life. If you leave any dependent children, an allowance may be paid for them in addition to the above benefits.
Members of the scheme should indicate who they would like benefits paid to in the event of their death:
Keeping in touch
Your pension may stop if we lose contact with you, so it is important to keep us informed of any change in your circumstances. Please let our pensions administrator Serco know if you change your address or banking arrangements:
East Sussex County Council