The annual benefit statement is currently our main way of keeping in touch with you as an active scheme member.
Your statement is an important document which updates you about your pension, gives you the opportunity to plan for your future income and helps you make decisions about retirement.
Your statement is calculated using your latest pay figure, and shows you an estimate of your pension benefits built up in your pension account up until the last 31 March and is based on information given to us by your employer.
My Pension Online
Your statement will be located on your My Pension Online account, if you have not registered for this service you can complete our access form to begin your registration.
Your statement doesn't project your pension benefits to a future date, but you can use My Pension Online at any time to get an estimate of what your benefits would be at different dates.
When you can expect to receive your statement
We will issue your annual statement by 31 August each year, and you’ll normally receive it during July or August.
There will occasionally be issues to resolve before we can issue your statement or, in some cases, you may have queries about the details shown.
Reasons why your statement may be delayed
There are some reasons why your annual statement might be delayed. Some of these are explained as follows:
You joined the scheme recently
If you've only joined the scheme since 1 April you will not receive your first Annual Pension Statement until next year. This is because the statement reflects membership of the scheme until the previous 31 March.
Your employer hasn’t submitted information
Your employer should send details about your pay and pension contributions for the previous year up to 31 March, usually by mid-April. If your employer fails to submit information on time, it may result in your statement being delayed.
Your employer hasn’t answered a query
We may have an outstanding query with your employer about the information they've provided to us. We'll send you a statement when we've received their answer.
We are working on 'aggregating' your multiple pension records
We may be in the process of joining together two or more of your pension records. We'll send you a statement when this has been completed.
You have an additional pension contract or pension sharing order in place
If you have either of these in place we'll be working on your record and we'll issue your statement as soon as we can.
Common issues
There are certain circumstances which may affect the accuracy of your statement. If you believe that your statement is incorrect, it may be that your issue is covered by the following:
The statement doesn’t reflect all of your jobs
If you have more than one job where you contribute to the LGPS, you'll receive a separate annual benefit statement for each job.
You've changed your name
If you've told your employer about your change of name, they should have let us know. Please ask your employer to let us know as soon as possible.
It’s important that both ourselves and your employer know so the details they send to us match up with our records.
However, if you want your name for your pension record to be different to that used by your employer, get in touch with us directly to let us know what details you want recorded on your pension record.
Your contact details are out of date
If your address has changed, it is very important to notify your employer, who will keep us informed.
If we hold your email address on record, please contact us directly if you wish to change this or if you are registered for My Pension Online, you can change it through there.
You've paid additional contributions
If you're paying additional contributions (to buy additional membership or additional pension), the amounts shown on your statement will reflect the amounts you've bought by 31 March.
Additional contributions that are included are:
You believe the CARE figure on your statement is incorrect
Just a few of the reasons why your CARE pay might be lower than you expect are:
- You've been off work through illness or injury:
If you've been off work because of illness or injury and moved to reduced or no pay, your employer needs to tell us about your 'assumed pensionable pay', which reflects what you would have earned had you not been off work, based on your most recent periods of full pay.
If you think your employer hasn’t done this, please contact them directly.
- You've been off work through child-related leave:
If you've had a period of paid child-related leave, such as maternity leave, and been on reduced pay, this should trigger your employer to include 'assumed pensionable pay' in the pay details they send to us.
If you think that may not have happened, please contact your employer directly.
- You have had other authorised leave without pay:
If you've had a period of authorised unpaid leave or unpaid additional child-related leave, your CARE pay will be lower because you weren’t paid. However, you can buy the pension you lost because of your absence. Your employer will be able to tell you how much pay you've lost and you can use that to find out how much it'll cost you.
Go to the national LGPS member website for more details and an online calculator. If you apply within 30 days of your return to work, your employer will share the costs with you.
- Your contract has changed:
If your contract has changed and some or all of your working hours have been moved into a different contract, you may now have more than one pension record. If that’s the case, we'll send you a separate pension statement.
My issue was not covered in the previous section
If your issue has not been covered here, don't worry. You can contact us and we'll be happy to help.