LGPS pension - what do do with it?!

mimosaurus

Hi,

I'm hoping someone can give me some advice as I'm quite lost! I joined a LGPS when I joined local government in June 2008. I moved Local Authorities a couple of times but always joined the pension scheme and transferred previous pensions to the new LGPS at the new authority.

I left Local Government employment in September 2013 to join a private company and I have since started paying in to their scheme. I was never contacted by the LGPS to ask what I wanted to do with the pension I had with them, so I assume it was deferred. I am at a total loss about what to do with the LGPS pension. I doubt it is worth very much because my salary was circa £20k for most of the time I worked there and I only paid in for around 5 years. However, I feel like I should know and understand a lot more about it since it is essentially my money and I have currently no idea what's happening with it!

I will contact the LGPS to discover exactly what is there, but I wondered if anyone could give any advice relating to whether it's worth leaving LGPS pensions or whether I should try to get the money out and pay into some other kind of pension?

Thank you in advance

Edit: just noticed I spelled the title wrong

kidmugsy

mimosaurus wrote: »

whether it's worth leaving LGPS pensions

This question is asked a dozen times a week. The answer is always the same. Save for the most unusual circumstances, leave the ruddy money where it is.

mimosaurus

Ok, thanks for taking the time to respond I did search the forum but didn't see a post linked to this, should have looked harder I guess!

Cheers anyway.

jem16

mimosaurus wrote: »

I doubt it is worth very much because my salary was circa £20k for most of the time I worked there and I only paid in for around 5 years.

At the moment it's will give a pension of around £1666pa and will continue to grow with inflation until it's time to take it.

To get the same benefit from a Defined Contribution pension would take a pot of around £55k so hardly worth very little.

I will contact the LGPS to discover exactly what is there, but I wondered if anyone could give any advice relating to whether it's worth leaving LGPS pensions or whether I should try to get the money out and pay into some other kind of pension?

Leave it exactly where it is. No other pension would come anywhere near close to what you have and with absolutely no risk to yourself.

Meanwhile continue paying into your new pension scheme.

mgdavid

...and ensure you always update LGPS with your current address whenever you move.

hyubh

mimosaurus wrote: »

I was never contacted by the LGPS to ask what I wanted to do with the pension I had with them,

Why would they? You have a deferred pension as you surmise, and should have recieved a deferred benefit statement after leaving, assuming you didn't move and failed to update the administrator with your new address.

I am at a total loss about what to do with the LGPS pension.

Keep it where it is. Transfer values in defined benefit schemes (not just the LGPS) almost always don't reflect the true value of the pension from the individual's point of view.

However, I feel like I should know and understand a lot more about it since it is essentially my money and I have currently no idea what's happening with it!

If you keep the adminstrator informed of your current address, they have a statutory obligation to issue a deferred annual benefit statement to you every year. Not that the statement will be full of surprises: take last year's and uprate the figures by the previous September's CPI figure...

greenglide

If you keep the adminstrator informed of your current address, they have a statutory obligation to issue a deferred annual benefit statement to you every year. Not that the statement will be full of surprises: take last year's and uprate the figures by the previous September's CPI figure...

I always thought that DB schemes didn't have to give annual statements for deferred pensions as nothing had really changed.

My deferred LGPS scheme never contacted me after leaving (in 1996) until I reached 60.

hyubh

greenglide wrote: »

I always thought that DB schemes didn't have to give annual statements for deferred pensions as nothing had really changed.

My deferred LGPS scheme never contacted me after leaving (in 1996) until I reached 60.

The requirement was introduced during the noughties - are you now retired...?

greenglide

hyubh wrote: »

The requirement was introduced during the noughties - are you now retired...?

I reached 60 a couple of years ago and the LGPS rules at the time (depending on my age, when I left, how long I had been the scheme etc) dictated that I couldnt defer it which would have been my preference.

So it is going into AVCs in my present scheme as it will fund the 25% PCLS while also saving NI contributions as the scheme is salary sacrifice.

So I am not retired (I am in full time employment) but I am in receipt of a pension.

So between 1996 and 2011 I received no annual statements and they sent my pension details in 2011.

[Deleted User]

I have a deferred lg pension - I paid into it for 7 years and left in 2006. I have had annual statements sent to me since then

hyubh

greenglide wrote: »

So between 1996 and 2011 I received no annual statements and they sent my pension details in 2011.

Naughty administrator! I've looked it up, and the requirement started in 2005 when ABSs generally now had to be issued:

http://timeline.lge.gov.uk/Amended/SI20040573/pt4ch4.html#106

Corresponding requirement in the LGPS 2008 Regs...

http://timeline.lge.gov.uk/LGPS2008Regs/SI20140044/20080239.htm#reg68

... and in the LGPS 2014 ones:

http://lgpsregs.org/index.php/decisions?showall=&start=17