Annual update for active members August 2019
The Annual Benefit Statements for active members are now available through each member's online mypension account. These Statements show the value of the benefits built up as at 31 March 2019, within the Tyne and Wear Pension Fund or the Northumberland County Council Pension Fund, depending on your membership. If you are already registered to access your mypension online account, you will receive an email to let you know your statement is available to view.
The active Statements show the standard benefits each member held at 31 March 2019, along with the projected value of the standard benefits as at the member's Normal Pension Age (NPA).
View the Annual active benefits statement 2019 sample.
To view your personal Statement you need to login to your mypension account.
The information below is to assist active members to understand their pension entitlements.
Please note: If you also have a deferred membership in the Tyne and Wear Pension Fund or the Northumberland County Council Pension Fund, the Annual Benefit Statements for these records were available online during July.
If you have already been in contact with us to opt out of online communications, your Statement will be sent out in late August.
How Your Standard Benefits are Calculated
Membership up to 31 March 2008 | |
Final Salary Pension | 1/80 x scheme membership x final pay |
Automatic Lump Sum | 3/80 x scheme membership x final pay |
| |
Membership after 31 March 2008 and up to 31 March 2014 | |
Final Salary Pension | 1/60 x scheme membership x final pay |
Automatic Lump Sum | not applicable |
Benefits after 31 March 2014 | |
CARE Pension | 1/49 x pensionable pay into your pension account each year |
Automatic Lump Sum | not applicable |
How Your Benefits are built up
Membership and Final Pay (Pre 2014 Benefits)
Your benefits are made up of membership and pay.
Membership is
- Each year and day of LGPS membership
- Membership transferred in from previous pension providers
- Membership purchased
- Part time membership is calculated according to the hours worked, with Whole Time Equivalent (WTE) pay
Pay is
- Usually the final year's pay, but the protections may apply for members who had a drop in pay
- Final salary still used to calculate benefits built up to 31 March 2014.
CARE Scheme (Career Average Revalued Earnings) (Post 2014 Benefits)
- You pay contributions on what you earn - including non contractual overtime
- You build up 1/49th of your pay as a pension each year - every 31 March a pension amount equal to 1/49th of the pay you paid contributions on in the past year is added to your pension account
- Your pension is inflation proofed for life - once each year's pension is added to your pension account, it is inflation proofed for the rest of your life. This year's increase is 3%.
You can find more information in our booklet, Your Pension.
Pooling of Investments
Tyne and Wear Pension Fund and Northumberland County Council Pension Fund, together with ten other pension funds have created an organisation to manage the Funds' investments. This organisation is known as Border to Coast Pensions Partnership Limited and the arrangements are to comply with new legislation.
In 2018 Border to Coast submitted a five year business plan to the Financial Conduct Authority, which is the body responsible for overseeing such matters. The plan details the management of the investments owned by the twelve partner funds, now worth approximately £50 billion. Border to Coast and the partner funds believe that this will result in better performance and reduced costs, as well as providing the partner funds with a more influential voice in the investment community.
Both the Tyne and Wear Pension Fund and Northumberland County Council Pension Fund responsibilities for paying pensions, collecting contribution income from employers and otherwise administering the pension scheme remain entirely unchanged. In other words, pooling investments will not affect you or your pension arrangements in any way.
About the Fund
More information about the Fund is available in the Full Annual Report and Accounts from:
- Tyne and Wear Pension Fund (TWPF) on our Members annual reports page
- Northumberland County Council Pension Fund (NCCPF) at Northumberland County Council's website
Further information about the Scheme can be found in our scheme booklets or from the national Scheme site at LGPS members national website.
Beware of Pensions Fraud - Thinking of doing something with your pension pot?
If you are considering leaving the Scheme to transfer your LGPS benefits you need to guard against Pension Liberation Fraud also known as Pension Scams. Significant tax penalties can apply to those who transfer and access benefits under age 55. The Pensions Regulator with HMRC and associated organisations has a campaign against Pension Liberation Fraud. For further information please visit The Pensions Regulator website.
Options to Pay More or Less
We have shown the value of your Scheme benefits on your Statement. There are also ways that you can change your future pension benefits. Some of these are:
- You can purchase extra pension in the LGPS
- You can pay Additional Voluntary Contributions (AVCs) into the In House AVC arrangement with Prudential
- You could also arrange other ways to improve your pension benefits outside of the LGPS
You can pay lower contributions by opting for the 50/50 section of the Scheme.
Further information on paying more or less, see Paying less.
Exchanging Pension for Lump Sum
Your Statement will show your standard benefits. When you draw your pension benefits you will have the option to exchange part of your pension for lump sum, within certain limits set by HM Revenue and Customs. For every £1 of pension you exchange, you will receive £12 of tax free lump sum.
Further information is available on the LGPS member website.
Privacy Notices
Your Statement includes personal information - we have policies in place to protect your personal information.
Privacy Notices - How we use Your Personal Information
South Tyneside Council holds information for the Tyne and Wear Pension Fund and Northumberland County Council Pension Fund about you that is used for pension processing. Your information is treated as confidential; however, it may be shared with other organisations for the processing of benefits and, if we are required to by law, for the detection and prevention of fraud.
If you would like to know more about what information we hold about you, or the way we use it please write to the Pensions Office, PO Box 212, South Shields, NE33 9ER or view our website at our Privacy noticespage.
Your mypension online account
mypension is a secure service where you can view your pension details online and make changes to some types of personal information if you are an active, deferred or pensioner member. This is also the location for your annual information, including Annual Benefit Statements. To access your mypension online account, you will need to register first. The registration process is simple and will only take you a few minutes.
You can find information about mypension on our mypension section of our website.
By using our online service mypension, you can run your own retirement estimates to see what your benefits might be using different retirement dates.
If you have a Notification which shows no figures
For a small number of members we have been unable to produce an Annual Benefit Statement. If this applies to an active member of the LGPS, the mypension online account will show a document titled 'Your Active Benefit Statement Notification 2019' which explains the most common reasons why we have been unable to calculate any figures. For any outstanding queries, we will continue to work with the employers to resolve any outstanding queries to ensure that next year's Statement is correct.