Increasing your Pension Benefits
Members of the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) have the following choices to consider when deciding how to increase their benefits via a pension arrangement:
• purchasing extra benefits (commonly known as ‘ARCs' which stands for Additional Regular Contributions) in the LGPS, more details are given below.
• paying additional voluntary contributions (AVC's) via the LGPS to the scheme’s AVC plan (commonly known as scheme AVC's or in-house AVC's). Our current appointed AVC provider is the Prudential. Click here for information on our current AVC provider. Previous to using the Prudential the Fund used Equitable Life Assurance Society. This arrangement is now closed. To view the previous correspondence regarding our former AVC provider, Equitable Life, click here.
• paying free-standing additional voluntary contributions (FSAVC’s) to a FSAVC provider of your personal choice.
• paying contributions to a concurrent stakeholder pension scheme.
• paying contributions to a concurrent personal pension scheme.
• repaying contributions previously refunded under the LGPS. If you ceased Local Government employment between 1st April 1974 and 31st December 1979 with less than five years membership in the LGPS and you claimed a refund of contributions, you may be able to repay the refund plus interest to enable the period of membership to count for pension purposes. The repayment must be made within six months of re-joining the LGPS, or such longer period as your current and former administering authority may allow.
Not all of the above alternatives will be available to every individual.
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Additional Regular Contributions(ARCs)
The Fund has produced a short booklet to provide information about ARCs, along with the tables which show the costs of increasing your pension benefits.
To view this booklet, please click below:
Additional Regular Contributions Booklet
To view the table of costs, please click below:
Additional Regular Contributions Table of Costs
If you decide that you would like to go ahead and buy extra pension, please read the covering letter and complete the application form and return it to the Pensions Office.
To view the covering letter, please click below:
Additional Regular Contributions Covering Letter
To download the application form, please click below:
Additional Regular Contributions Application Form
Once the Fund receives your form we will send you a medical questionnaire to complete. At this point you will need to pay a charge of £40 for medical clearance.
If you have any queries or require further information, please contact the Pensions Helpline. We are unable to offer financial advice, but we can discuss your options with you. You may wish to seek independent financial advice before making your decision.
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The Fund is busy producing a booklet to explain the above options in more detail. This booklet will be available soon.
The Pensions Section is not authorised under the Financial Services Act to give scheme members individual advice. If you wish to receive individual and independent advice you may wish to talk to a registered independent financial adviser. You will personally need to meet the cost of any charges made for the advice.
You can obtain information on a wide range of financial topics, including how to go about finding a financial adviser, from the Financial Services Authority (FSA). This is an independent organisation responsible for regulating financial services in the UK. The FSA’s broad task is to achieve a marketplace that is run in an efficient, orderly and clean manner whilst ensuring that consumers receive a fair deal by being properly informed and appropriately protected. The FSA Consumer Helpline is 0845 606 1234.