Preparing for retirement
Contents
- Overview
- Once your retirement is agreed
- Once we receive your leaver details
- When you will receive your pension
- Payslips and your mypension account
- More information
Overview
As you prepare for your retirement benefits to be brought into payment, there are a number of steps which need to happen before your pension benefits can be paid.
Once your retirement is agreed
Once your retirement is agreed with your employer (subject to any conditions or restrictions your employer has imposed), your employer will notify the Pension Fund that you have left. This may happen several weeks after your final date of employment, as your employer must run your final payroll to ensure that your date of leaving and relevant pay figures are correct. Your employer will also have to carry out some statutory duties for His Majesty Revenue and Customs (HMRC). They will collect the appropriate leaving details and forward this information to the Pensions Office at South Tyneside Council.
Once we receive your leaver details
Once we receive your leaver details, we will commence working on the figures provided by your employer. In some cases we may have to go back to your employer for further clarification as your pension benefits are based on the information they provide to us. Our ability to provide your options is dependent upon the quality of the information we receive from your employer, payroll deadlines and volume of work.
If you are age 55 or over when you voluntarily leave your employment, the Pensions Office will write to you enclosing all details of the options available to you. You can elect to receive payment of your benefits or defer them to a later date. If you decide to take payment you will need to fill in an option form to confirm how you want to take your benefit package. You will need to make a decision about how much lump sum you want to take, before we can pay any pension benefits to you. You may need to provide some information about additional pensions or overseas pension transfers.
Processing your retirement benefits
We will also require sight of your Birth Certificate (a photocopy is acceptable) to be able to process your retirement benefits. Please post the certificate to our office. If you decide to send us an original certificate and wish to use a recorded method of posting, please use the full postal address for the Pensions Office, we will make a copy, certify that we have seen the original document and then post them back to your home address, using the same method you have used to send them to us.
Our full postal address: Tyne and Wear Pension Fund, Westoe Road, South Shields, Tyne and Wear, NE33 2RL.
When you will receive your pension
Our ability to get you onto the next pension payroll period is influenced by the payroll deadlines and our usual monthly cycle of processing.
Once your benefits are brought into payment they will be backdated to your first day on pension, which is usually the day after your date of leaving, or the day after the date you wrote on your CARE 65 form (if you have completed one). This may mean that your first pension payment includes arrears and may be more than a single month's pension amount. Most pensioners find that they pay tax based on a temporary tax code during their first few months on pension until HMRC inform us of your personalised tax code. Once we have a personal tax code for you, we will adjust the tax deductions and repay any overpayment of tax within the tax year. If you wish to discuss your tax code please contact HM Revenue and Customs directly.
Pension payments are made on the first working day after 15th of each month, for the whole of that calendar month. Please consult our list of pension pay dates to find out when you will receive your pension payments.
Payslips and your mypension account
Your payslips will be available each month online through your mypension account. These payslips can be printed if you need to provide proof of your pension to any third party organisation. Your P60 (Statement of Earnings) form and annual update information will also be available through your mypension account each April.
You can also use your mypension account to update some of your personal details, for example, if you move home or change your name. To register please go to Help using your mypension account.
Please note if you have filled in our form CARE65 Application for Early Payment of Benefits, this does not shorten or replace any of the procedures listed above.