The LGPS is available to all employees who are aged under 75 (70 for Coroners) and who work in Local Government (other than Teachers, Police Officers and Firefighters, all of whom have their own schemes) or for an employer who has chosen to be part of the scheme by way of an admission agreement.
- There is no lower age restriction on joining the scheme
- There is no restriction on the number of hours needed to work per week
- There is no restriction on the number of weeks needed to work per year
All contracts of employment issued to new employees should include reference to the fact that admission to the LGPS is automatic (but see note below about employees of admitted or resolution bodies) and contributions will be deducted with effect from the first day of employment. A copy of the brief scheme summary (LGS1B) should be issued to all new employees with their contract of employment. This document can be found in the Standard Documents section of this website and all employers are welcome to download and print copies for their own use.
Admitted and Resolution Bodies
An employee of a Town or Parish Council, a Foundation School which was not a Grant Maintained School prior to 1st April 1999 or a non-Local Government organisation which participates in the scheme may not automatically be admitted to the scheme. Such employers may decide to which groups of their employees the Scheme will be offered.
Casual Employees
With effect from 1 October 2012 all casual workers are now eligible to join the scheme and any new casual employees with a contract of more than 3 months must be entered into the scheme automatically on commencing their employment.
For every new member of the scheme, the employer must complete form LGS15A (or otherwise provide details by a method agreed between the employing authority and the scheme administrators) giving accurate and complete information. This form should be sent to the pension section of the administering authority.
There should not be any delay in despatching forms to the pension administrators. The employee will receive a welcome pack from the pension administrators once their details have been set up on the pension administration system upon receipt of the starter Form LGS15A.
Pension Fund service standards require the employing authority to notify the scheme administrators of an admission to the scheme within 20 working days of the employee joining the scheme. The details that must be completed on Form LGS15A (or different form as agreed between the employing authority and the scheme administrator) are as follows:
- Name of Employer - It important that the pension team are clear about who the employer is. Abbreviations and short names are not always instantly recognisable e.g. WTC could be either Woodley Town Council or Wokingham Town Council
- Pay Reference Number - The pension team holds details of your employee's pay reference number so this should be provided at all times. Whilst it can be used as an extra checkpoint, the pay reference can also be detailed in any reports that you may request from the pension team about your scheme members
- Post No - If the scheme member holds more than one post you need to indicate which post the admission details relate to
- Surname
- Forenames
- Title
- Home Address - It is important that home addresses are held on the pension administration system as newsletters and annual benefit statements are currently sent out to home addresses
- Email Address - Pension Scheme information is regularly sent out to employers for circulation to staff via their intranet systems. In the future it is hoped that such information can be circulated directly by the Pension Fund to its members via personal e-mail addresses held for each individual member of the scheme
- National Insurance Number
- Date of Birth - Before any benefits are paid by the Pension Fund the pension team will need to see evidence of the scheme member's date of birth
- Partnership Status - Before any benefits are paid by the Pension Fund the pension team will request a copy of a member's marriage certificate or civil partnership registration document to confirm whether or not any dependant's pension may ultimately become payable. Scheme members' also have the right to nominate an opposite or same sex partner for a survivor's pension
- Date of Appointment - This is the date that the individual became your employee
- Date Joined Scheme - This is the date that your employee became a member of the pension scheme
- Actual Annual Pensionable Pay - This is the annual rate of pay on which pension contributions are deducted and received at the date the member joined the scheme and is the actual part-time rate of pay if the member is not a full-time employee
- Full Time Equivalent Annual Pensionable Pay - This relates to part-time employees and refers to the annual rate of pay on which pension contributions would be deducted for an equivalent full-time employee. Pension benefits are ultimately based on full-time equivalent pay except in respect of a death in service lump sum
- Job Title
- Contractual Hours Per Week - Membership of the LGPS is built up as whole and part years depending on the number of hours that a scheme member is contracted to work. A full-time employee builds up 1 year of membership for every year of full-time employment. A part-time employee builds up a proportion of a full year depending on how many hours the member works. For example a member working half-time will need to work two years to build up one year of membership
- Full-Time Equivalent Weekly Hours - In order to calculate the proportion of full-time membership for a part-time employee the pension team need details of the full-time equivalent contractual hours that the part-time person would otherwise work
- Contractual Weeks Per Year - Not all employees work a full 52 weeks of a year e.g. certain people employed by schools work term-time only. This needs to be notified to the pension team as this will affect the proportion of membership built up
- Term-Time - Does the employee work on a term-time basis.
- Is Individual Employed on a Variable-Time Basis? - where an employee does not work contractual hours the pension team will set an indicator on their administration system in order to recognise that fact. At year end you will be asked to supply details of the average weekly hours worked by your employee so that a period of membership can be calculated
- Has this employee been appointed to more than one post? - As the pension section need to hold separate records for each post that an employee may hold, you must send separate information for each post
The notification must be signed and dated by an authorised signatory.
Every new scheme member will receive a welcome letter from the Pension Fund once their full and complete details have been set up on the pension administration system. Included in the welcome letter will be a reference explaining how to transfer previous pension rights into the Scheme and a reminder to complete an Expression of Wish form.