Newsletter - June 2025

'My Pension' is our website, where you can take control of your local government pension. Our modern and easy-to-use system allows you to view your pension information confidently and securely. 

My Pension provides the following.

• Online annual benefit statements, broken down into simple chunks to help you understand your pension benefits.
• A retirement-planning tool which allows you to set retirement goals and see whether you are on track to reach them.
• Benefit calculators to work out what will happen to your benefits if you leave the LGPS, take voluntary retirement or die before you retire.
• A way for you to update your personal details.
• A way for you to tell us who you would like to receive any death benefits that are due.

Login to ‘My Pension’

Register for ‘My Pension’

Did you know that your pension provides you with the following?

• A secure pension, paid for life, that increases in line with the cost of living.

• The option to give up part of your annual pension for a tax-free lump sum when you retire.

• A flexible retirement date between the ages of 55 and 75 (your pension benefits may reduce or increase depending on when you retire).

• Serious ill-health cover that makes benefits available immediately, based on an enhanced period of scheme membership, if you have to retire due to a serious illness. Enhanced membership means that pensions are not reduced if they are paid early. Your pension may be enhanced to make up for your early retirement.

• Redundancy cover, which allows you to take your pension benefits early if you’re made redundant or retire aged 55 or over in order to improve the efficiency of the business.

• Life cover that provides a lump sum of three times your final pay if you die before you retire.

• Death benefits for your family, including a survivor’s pension for your husband, wife, civil partner or eligible live-in partner, as well as children’s pensions.

Opting out and 50/50

You have the right to opt out of the LGPS if you decide you do not want to be a member. However, the LGPS is one of the best occupational pension schemes in England and Wales so you should think carefully before making this decision. You may also want to get advice from an independent financial adviser.

50/50 section

Instead of opting out, or at times when money is tight, you can choose to stay in the scheme but pay a reduced contribution. This is known as the ‘50/50 option’. If you choose to do this, you will pay half your normal contribution rate and build up half your normal pension, but still keep your full life and ill-health cover.

You can choose to join the 50/50 section at any time. After you have joined the 50/50 section, you can move back to the main section of the LGPS whenever you want to.

If you die while you are paying into the LGPS, a death grant of three times your annual pay can be paid as a lump sum to someone you have nominated (a ‘beneficiary’). It does not matter how long you have been a member of the LGPS – you are protected from the day you join the scheme.

If you also have a deferred benefit or are receiving a pension (or both) from a previous period of membership of the LGPS, the death grant lump sum paid will be the higher of:

• the total of any death grants due from the deferred benefit or pension; or
• three times your annual pay on the date you die;

The annual pay used to work out the death grant is based on your assumed pensionable pay. This is an estimated pay figure used to make sure that your pension is not affected if your pensionable pay reduces when you are away from work, for example due to sickness. 

You can make an ‘expression of wish’ to tell us who you would like to receive any death grant that might become due. However, this is not legally binding, and we will decide who to pay any death grant to. If you are nominating a child under the age of 18, you should consider getting legal advice about setting up a trust fund.

If you want a better understanding of your LGPS pension and your options as a scheme member but you’re pressed for time, the Pensions Made Simple videos are perfect for you! These brief videos provide quick overviews on topics such as ‘How your pension works’, 'Protection for you and your family', 'Life after work’ and ‘The McCloud remedy’.

The cost of everyday essentials has been rising for the last few years. From supermarket basics to monthly bills, your money may not be going as far as it used to.

Whether you’re worried about day-to-day expenses such as the cost of groceries, the bills you have to pay, rent increases, higher energy costs or tackling debt, the Government and MoneyHelper have brought together a range of useful tools, guides and calculators to help you keep on top of your spending. These include a budget calculator which helps you keep track of your money and suggests ways to improve your finances.

Explore ‘Help with the cost of living’ at MoneyHelper.org.uk.

In England, the Government also provides online support to help with bills and the cost of living. This includes support with utility bills (gas, water and electricity), financial support from your local council and Council Tax Reduction.

Last year we gave you an update about LGPS funds taking part in a new initiative called pensions dashboards. 

Pensions dashboards let you safely view all your unpaid pension benefits, including your State Pension, in one place. This should help you find any pension accounts you may have lost and help you plan for your retirement.

All pension providers must connect to the dashboards by 31 October 2026. LGPS funds are prioritising working with specialist companies to connect to the dashboards by 31 October 2025.

The dashboards will become available to the public when the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions is satisfied that they are ready to support widespread use by the public.

The normal minimum pension age (NMPA) is the earliest age that you can take your pension. The NMPA is currently 55, but it will rise to 57 from 6 April 2028. This change does not apply if you have to take your pension early due to ill health.

What does this mean for me?

Will there be any protection from the change in the NMPA?

How your pension is worked out

There is more than one type of LGPS pension.

Since 1 April 2014, the LGPS has been a career average revalued earnings (CARE) pension scheme, which is a type of occupational pension scheme where the benefits you receive are based on your average earnings over your career. This means that the pension you build up in the LGPS from 1 April 2014 is based on your pay.

1/49th of your annual pensionable pay is put into your pension account every year, or 1/98th if you are in the 50/50 scheme. (The 50/50 section allows you to reduce your contributions by half, and in return build up half your normal pension benefits.) If your pay has been reduced for certain reasons, we use your assumed pensionable pay to calculate how much to put into your pension account. The balance in your pension account at the end of each year is adjusted in the following April in line with the cost of living. If you have more than one job, you will have a separate pension account for each one.

If you are buying extra pension by paying additional pension contributions or shared cost additional pension contributions, the amount you buy in each year is added to your pension account.

If you joined the LGPS before 1 April 2014, you have membership in the final salary scheme. Your pension is based on your final pay and the benefits are worked out differently to the CARE scheme.

• For membership built up between 1 April 2008 and 31 March 2014, you will receive a pension of 1/60th of your final pay.
• For membership built up before 1 April 2008, you will receive a pension of 1/80th of your final pay plus a lump sum of three times your pension.

Your final pay is usually your pensionable pay in the year you leave the scheme. Your pensionable pay from one of the two years before the year you leave the scheme can be used if this is higher.

Taking your pension

For both CARE and final salary schemes, your normal pension age – when you can retire and take your benefits in full – is linked to your State Pension age.

You can choose to retire and take your LGPS pension any time from age 55 (rising to age 57 from 6 April 2028). Your benefits will be reduced if you choose to retire before your normal pension age or increased if you retire later.

First published in 2019, the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association’s (PLSA’s) Retirement Living Standards help us to picture what kind of lifestyle we could have in retirement.

Based on Loughborough University’s research, the standards define three living standards and provide estimated costs for essential things such as bills, food, transport, leisure and clothing.

These standards are regularly updated to take account of changes in the cost of goods and services and in people’s expectations for their retirement. The most recent study suggests that a single person will need £13,400 each year as a minimum income, £31,700 for a moderate standard of living and £43,900 to be comfortable. For couples, the equivalent numbers are £21,600, £43,900 and £60,600 each year.

You can find more information on the Retirement Living Standards on the PLSA website at www.retirementlivingstandards.org.uk.

The standards provide a general guide based on common costs for many people in retirement. However, it is important to remember that everyone's financial circumstances are different.

Once you have considered what you’ll need or want to spend your money on and have developed your own personal target, the next step is to work out how much your retirement income is likely to be and understand how much you already have (for example, in savings).

The full State Pension for 2025 to 2026 is £11,973.00 a year. This will go a long way towards reaching the minimum Retirement Living Standard for single pensioners. And couples, where both pensioners are on the full State Pension, would achieve the minimum Retirement Living Standard. You can check your pension forecast at  www.gov.uk/check-state-pension.

Other retirement income will include your LGPS benefits plus any other workplace pensions, personal pensions and any savings and investments you may have. If you’ve lost track of your pension pots, you can use the Pension Tracing Service to start tracking them down.

Your annual benefit statement (available by 31 August 2025) will show your LGPS benefits as of 31 March 2025 and estimates how much your future benefits might be if you keep contributing until your normal pension age (NPA). For benefits built up from April 2014, your NPA is linked to your State Pension age, but is at least 65.

The number of pension scams continues to rise. It’s more important than ever to understand how to protect your money and the signs to look out for if you think you might be dealing with a scam. Scammers often claim to be from genuine pension providers. They may contact you unexpectedly, through methods such as email, text message, social media or illegal cold-calling. They may offer you a free review of your finances or the opportunity to free up your pension before you are 55.

Their aim is to persuade you to transfer your pension savings to them, by promising access to high-earning, low-risk benefits.

To reduce the likelihood of being scammed:

• reject unexpected offers or cold calls;

• check who you’re dealing with by looking at the Financial Services Register at https://register.fca.org.uk;

• read The Pension Regulator’s leaflet on scams at https://www.fca.org.uk/publication/documents/pension-scams-leaflet.pdf;

• don’t be rushed or pressured into making decisions; and

• get impartial information and advice from https://www.moneyhelper.org.uk/en.

What is the McCloud remedy?

When public service pensions changed from final-salary to career-average schemes, members who were within 10 years of their normal pension age were protected. In 2018, the Court of Appeal ruled this was unfair to younger members. The McCloud remedy, which was introduced from 1 October 2023, gives similar protection to eligible younger members.

Who is protected by the McCloud remedy?

Not all LGPS members are protected. Whether you are depends on your membership history in the LGPS and other public service pension schemes.

What should I do?

If you’ve been a member of another public service pension scheme or LGPS fund

Before we pay your benefits, we will ask you to confirm whether you have any public sector membership held with another scheme. Your information helps us work out whether you’re protected by the McCloud remedy. We may need to ask for more information from your previous pension provider to help us make sure your pension calculations are accurate.

If you haven’t been a member of another public service pension scheme

You don’t need to do anything. We’ll work out whether you’re protected by the McCloud remedy. If you are protected, we will include it in the yearly pension figures on your 2025 annual benefit statement. We’ll work out any ‘final guarantee amount’ when you take your pension. However, this increase applies to very few members. 

How do I get more information?

Pension Awareness Week is back from 15 September 2025. This is the perfect time to get clued up about your retirement plans. The week is packed with free webinars and pension clinics, all designed to help you understand your pension and how to make the most of it.

The goal is simple – to get everyone more interested in their pensions. Whether you're just starting out or planning to retire soon, there's something for everyone. You can find a range of support on the official website at www.pensionawarenessday.com.

Why not spread the word? Encourage your colleagues, family and friends to check in with their pension providers. They can find help at www.gov.uk/find-pension-contact-details.

And don't forget to check your own State Pension at www.gov.uk/check-state-pension and regularly log in to your ‘My Pension’ our online self-service website.

And why not book yourself onto one of our LGPS member training sessions we are running in October 2025. Explore more here:

https://www.eastsussexpensionfund.org/your-pension/paying-in/free-pension-training/