LGPS member wanting to contribute more. AVC, APC or separate SIPP?

ChasingtheWelshdream

Thanks both. I have now had confirmation that I am ineligible to make AVCs on a zero hour contract, regardless of my earnings. The rationale is they/I cannot guarantee the wages in any given month. Which makes sense I suppose, but feels little unfair when I have consistently earned £300+ per month on a casual basis for years and would happily commit to £100-150 AVCs on top of the percentage contributions they already take. 

If I were contracted for a small number of hours earning the same, it would be allowed. 

Ah well. A SIPP is looking like the way to go. 

OldBeanz

ChasingtheWelshdream said:

Thanks both. I have now had confirmation that I am ineligible to make AVCs on a zero hour contract, regardless of my earnings. The rationale is they/I cannot guarantee the wages in any given month. Which makes sense I suppose, but feels little unfair when I have consistently earned £300+ per month on a casual basis for years and would happily commit to £100-150 AVCs on top of the percentage contributions they already take. 

If I were contracted for a small number of hours earning the same, it would be allowed. 

Ah well. A SIPP is looking like the way to go. 

They are wrong imho.
You should ask them to make a % contribution. My wife was making 100% contributions. (She had other income to use up her tax allowance. NI contributions and LGPS pension contributions were taken - she paid 80% of that into a SIPP to maximise her contributions for the year).

I would certainly be asking the question.

https://www.lgpsmember.org/your-pension/paying-in/paying-more/overview/

"You can pay up to 100% of your pensionable pay into an in-house AVC."

For info:Cambs; not SalSac; 33hr week

If the present Govt get their way then 0hr contracts will be abolished so that may well be a future opportunity.

ChasingtheWelshdream

It is worth another question, and I think along your lines but I am not hopeful. They class my zero hours as pensionable pay and take a percentage anyway. If I were to not earn in any given month, that wouldn’t be a problem. I can’t see why I couldn’t opt to pay 50% AVCs, but they seem quite fixed.

They also mentioned it is because it is a shared cost scheme and I wouldn’t meet the NI threshold. I can’t argue against that, but we have many low hours/pay positions (eg lunchtime assistants) who may also be under the threshold, but I see nothing to say they wouldn’t qualify to make AVCs.

At the end of the day, if those are the rules then I can’t do anything about it. With hindsight I should have started years ago but hey ho.