Claiming your Deferred pension benefits

If you were a member of the LGPS on or after 1 April 2014 and you paid Additional Voluntary Contributions (AVCs) and the contract to pay those AVCs started before 1 April 2014, you will see some changes in how you can take your AVC plan.

When you take your AVC plan:

• you can now buy an additional pension from the LGPS with your AVC plan when you take your benefits from the scheme. Before the change, this option was only available to members who took immediate payment of their main scheme benefits and their AVC plan when they left the scheme
• when you take your main scheme benefits you will no longer be able to leave your AVC invested and take it later
• if you die before taking your AVC and a lump sum is to be paid from your AVC plan, the pension fund now has absolute discretion over who to pay that sum to (rather than it having to be paid to your estate). If the lump sum is paid at the discretion of the pension fund it does not form part of the estate and will not be subject to inheritance tax.

For information about the other ways you can use your AVC plan see the national LGPS website www.lgpsmember.org/more/AVCoptions.php