Pensioner

A change to the scheme rules has been made to provide that survivor benefits payable to a same sex spouse or a civil partner are equal those paid to the widow of a male member. 

Why has the change been made?

The change has been made as a result of a Supreme Court judgment (Walker v Innopsec) which found that Mr Walker’s male spouse was entitled to the same benefits that would have been paid if Mr Walker had left a widow in an opposite sex marriage.

Why does this apply to the LGPS?

The government believes that the implication of this judgment for all public service pensions schemes, including the LGPS, is that surviving civil partners or surviving same sex spouses should be provided with benefits equal to those that would be left to the widow of a male member. 

When does the change take effect from?

The change is backdated to the date the civil partnerships and same sex marriages were introduced – this is 5 December 2005 for civil partnerships and 13 March 2014 for same sex marriages.

This means that where a member of the LGPS has died leaving a surviving civil partner or a same sex spouse, the survivor’s pension in payment will need to be reviewed and any additional amounts paid, where applicable. We are in the process of reviewing the impact of this change and will be contacting affected civil partners and same sex spouses in due course.  

If you think this applies to your personal situation following the death of your civil partner and you have not heard from us, please contact us immediately.

The change will automatically be taken into account in survivor benefits paid to civil partners and same sex spouses in the future.

Our online pensions service lets you view your pension pay advice slip for every month of the year.

In order to use this service, all you need to do is register online to set up a secure user account. The account will be linked to your pension record. 

To register, you will need your National Insurance number to hand.

As a result of offering the online service, we will not be issuing new pensioners with a printed pension payslip via the post. The same also applies to the annual P60 statements.

You may be asked by other organisations such as HMRC or your local Housing Benefit office to confirm in writing how much pension you are receiving from Leicestershire County Council, and when the pension becomes payable. 

Your online account will store a history of your payslips and P60s. Sending copies of these documents to these organisations should hopefully enable your claim to be processed without any delay. The printed version of the online P60 has been approved by HMRC.

If you have a form to complete from the Inland Revenue, you might be asked for Leicestershire County Council’s Pension PAYE reference.  This is 267/BA42983. Should the tax office ask for your personal payroll reference number please quote your National Insurance number which will be sufficient for the purposes of their form.  A personal pay reference will be allocated to you at a later date.

Your pension is taxed at source here at County Hall.  However, you might find that a basic rate tax coding is applied while your tax code is being investigated.  Any enquiries concerning your tax can be directed to the local tax office, which is Saxon House, 1 Causeway Lane, Leicester, LE1 4AA.  The telephone number is 0300 200 3300.

This function has now been taken over by the Pensions Section. Any queries regarding the payment of your pension, such as checking on your latest tax code, payment dates, changes to banking details etc. should be directed to the Pension Helpdesk phone 0116 3057886 or e-mail pensions@leics.gov.uk.

The pension is inflation proofed, and until 2010 the indexation was in line with the Retail Prices Index (RPI). From 2011 onwards, the rate of indexation became linked to the Consumer Prices Index (CPI). If Consumer Prices are positive, the pension will go up. However if the Index is negative, the pension that you are paid will not go down, but it will not increase for that year.

2022: From 11 April 2022 the pensions revaluation was a 3.1% increase.

2021: From 12 April 2021 the pensions revaluation was a 0.5% increase.

2020: From 6 April 2020 the pensions revaluation was a 1.7% increase.

2019: From 8 April 2019 the pensions revaluation was a 2.4% increase.

2018: From 9 April 2018 the pensions revaluation was a 3% increase.

It is possible that the actual level of pension increase as seen on your payslip is sometimes lower than the full percentage increase as only certain components are increased by Leicestershire County Council Pension Fund. This may apply to you if you left your pensionable employment before April 1997.
Please be assured that overall, the value of your state pension and Local Government Pension when combined will increase by the full rate for that year.

The pension is paid on the last banking day of each month.

If you return to work while receiving a Local Government Pension, normally the answer is no.

However, if you retired on either redundancy grounds or efficiency grounds prior to 2006, and received ‘compensatory added years’, and you return to Local Government employment, it could be the case. You’re advised to contact us immediately for an assessment.

You can update your address and bank details through your online account . Once you’ve registered you’ll be able to tell us of any changes to your address by going to the Your Details page and clicking on edit within the contact details box.

If there are any changes to your bank details please fill out the form which can be found at the top of the Your details page and sent it back to the address at the bottom of the form.

Your pension can still be paid to your UK bank account, but if you do want to investigate the possibility of having your pension paid abroad, subject to a small charge, please contact us and we will check if that country is covered by the scheme we use.

You will also receive what we call a ‘Life Certificate’ each year, for you to sign and verify your address.  This helps us combat fraud and ensures that our records are up to date.

Your pension entitlement will cease upon your death. However, there could still be some benefits payable to your family.

Partner's Pensions and Child's Pensions

There is an ongoing pension for your husband, wife or civil partner, and also pensions for eligible children.  They must normally be under 18, but can be as old as 23 if they carry on in full time education or in training for a trade, profession or vocation, or can even cover some adult children who cannot work, because of a disability which arose as a child.

If you are unmarried or not in a civil partnership, and you have scheme membership after 1 April 2008, your cohabiting partner* could receive a pension in the event of your death. 

*What defines a cohabiting Partner?  A scheme member can only provide benefits for a co-habiting partner provided they paid into the scheme on or after 1 April 2008.

Cohabiting partner means a person whom Leicestershire County Council Pension Fund is satisfied fulfils the following conditions:

The person (P) has fulfilled the conditions below for a continuous period of at least 2 years on the date the member (M) died

The conditions are:

• M is able to marry, or form a civil partnership with P
• M and P are living together as if they were married or as if they were civil partners
• Neither M nor P is living with a third person as if they were married or as if they were civil partners, and
• Either P is financially dependent on M, or M and P are financially interdependent.

The Death Grant Lump Sum

There may also be a lump sum payable should you have died within a relatively short time after retiring.  However every case is different and the amount paid will be particular to your own circumstances.  

If you have not already done so, please complete the Death Grant Expression of Wish form to nominate a beneficiary, or beneficiaries.

Complete the Death Grant Expression of Wish form online

If you have a Self-Service account on this website, you can complete the form online. To do this, you will need to either Login or go to the ‘Nominations’ section of Your Account: please click on the relevant icon at the top of this page.

If you do not have a Self-Service acount, you can Register today.

Download the form

Death Grant Expression of Wish form PDF

You can make an expression of wish for whoever you would like to receive the lump sum - friends, family, partners, even an organisation such as your favourite charity.

The advantage of making an expression of wish is that the payments can normally be made quickly without waiting for your estate to be settled.  Also, payment usually means that no inheritance tax needs to be paid on the Death Grant.

If you have scheme membership after 1 April 2008, and you die on pension before age 75, we may be able to pay out a lump sum if you have not drawn a full ten years’ pension.  If you left between 1st April 1998 and 31 March 2008, it can be five years.  If you left earlier than this, then it does vary from case to case.  If you retired after 1 April 2014, then the amount could also vary depending on the amount of tax free cash taken upon retirement, as this is also taken into account when calculating the amount of death grant.

Important note: If you have more than one LGPS pension, that is to say if you a current contributing member as well with separate benefits either within the Leicestershire Scheme or under another Local Authority in the event of your death, only one Death Grant will be paid.  This will be the one that is the higher of the payments, once they have been calculated.

The Pension Section will always advise relatives if there are any monies due to the family.

Please ensure your relatives know you have a Leicestershire County Council pension in case something happens to you, so that it is easy for them to contact us.

If you have pensionable service between 6 April 1948 and 31 March 1980 your pension will reduce slightly when you reach state pension age. This reduction is due to National Insurance (NI) modification.

When the government introduced the NI scheme, on 6 April 1948, the LGPS was modified, which resulted in you paying less contributions into the pension fund, in order to ensure that two pensions were not paid for the same period of service.

On 31 March 1980, modification was removed and you started to pay a higher amount of pension contributions into the pension fund.

If you paid into the modified scheme and therefore paid a lower percentage of pension contributions, at state pension age your pension will be reduced annually by £1.70 for each year that you paid into the modified scheme. The maximum reduction is therefore £54 per annum. If you have an incomplete year of service in the modified scheme the reduction will be in proportion to this.

If you retire before you reach state pension age, the actual reduction in your pension will be more than the amount originally specified on your notification of pension benefits. This is because annual pension increases are taken into account. A reduction for NI modification is taken from the original amount of pension you received at retirement and pension increases are then reapplied. Therefore the reduction will be the amount of pension originally notified multiplied by the percentage increases which have been applied to your pension on a yearly basis.