Linking Local Authority pensions

mwddrwg

I hope someone out there can advise on this one.

I have about 13 years saved of a final salary local government pension on a final-salary basis and have just started a new period of service in local government after a 7-month break.

My previous final salary was £26,000, giving me potentially £4000 pension per annum and an £11,000 lump sum on retirement. My new period of employment starts at £17,161 per annum and I have been given the option of linking the periods into one pension. Do you think I should do this? If I don't, can they pay me two pensions? Would I pay more tax on 2 rather than one? I intend to stay in the public sector for the foreseeable future. Hope you can shed some light on this.

Thanks

Mortgage_&_debt_free

Talk to the scheme administrators, they'll take you through the options.

You can find out the contact numbers for your local administrators at http://www.lgps.org.uk/lge/core/page.do?pageId=99259

HTH

seven-day-weekend

You may find that your current lower salary has an impact on your pension. I asked this same question of the scheme administrators when I thought I might be in a similar position.

I agree with the above poster, talk to the scheme administrators.

It won't make any difference tax-wise as your tax is based on your total income from all sources.

Andy_L

Unless you have been given a "certificate of protection" then, if you link your previous pension it will then be based on on your new salary of £17k rather than the old salary of £26k. Thus, overnight, it will drop from a £4k pension + lump sum to one of £2.7k + lump sum.

I suspect your career path is unlikely to be able to make up the pay drop, expecially as the defered pension will increase with RPI, so its unlikely to worth linking.

Having 2 pensions makes no difference to your tax situation