Pension Awareness Week 2024

What is Pensions Awareness Week?

Pensions Awareness Week will be launching on the 9 - 15 September, offering practical help to the public and workplaces on how they can achieve the lifestyle they want in later life. This is an essential campaign dedicated to highlighting the importance of preparing and saving for retirement. It will offer a great opportunity to take a look at your own arrangements, whether that is setting up your first pension, or deciding whether the one you have is right for you.

It's a great reminder to think about how much income you'll need in retirement, as well as how your Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) pension works. Our Pensions Awareness Week video covers the unique features and benefits that is offered by the LGPS.

What is the purpose of Pension Awareness Week?

The purpose of Pension Awareness Week is to educate people on the benefits of a pension and understand the importance of saving for later in life. The week aims to raise questions around how retirement will be funded, how to withdraw a pension, how much of a pension is needed to live within a person's needs, and how a pension is calculated with an employer. There will be various live shows available to watch during the course of the week on the Pensions Awareness website. 

Understanding Pension Planning

Pension planning involves setting aside funds during your working years to ensure financial security in retirement. It's a crucial aspect of financial health and understanding its components can help you make the most of your retirement savings.

Although more people than ever are saving into a workplace pension, many savers do not engage with them. Pension Attention is here to tackle this, with an eye-catching national awareness campaign that urges you to Pay Your Pension Some Attention. Further information regarding this can be found here: Pension Attention

Your Annual Benefit Statement (ABS)

Every year we provide members with their annual benefit statement (ABS). If you joined the Tyne and Wear Pension Fund before 1 April 2024, your ABS will be available online via your mypension account.

The ABS is a statement that tells members about the pension benefits they have added to their pension pot over the previous financial year. It is important that they are aware of their ABS and make sure that things such as their pay and contribution levels are correct.

Information about activating your mypension account can be found on our 'Help using your mypension account' page.

Increasing Your Pension Benefits

Do you know how much pension you would like to receive when you retire from your job? If you have looked at your ABS, you may want to increase the value of your pension at retirement. As a member of the LGPS, there are two tax efficient ways of increasing your income in retirement.

• Buying Extra Pension in the LGPS - Additional Pension Contributions (APCs)
• Additional Voluntary Contributions (AVCs)

Additional Pension Contributions (APCs)

If you are in the main section of the LGPS you can pay additional contributions to buy up to £8,344 per year (2024/25 rates). This figure will increase each year in line with the cost of living. Any extra pension is payable on top of the normal LGPS benefits. APCs count towards the member's pension only and do not count towards death in service or survivor's pension benefits.

Additional Voluntary Contributions (AVCs)

AVCs are a form of investment to build up a separate pension or lump sum or a combination of both. You can currently pay up to 100 per cent of your pensionable pay, from any usual pay day, into your pension.

Further information on how to increase your benefits can be found on the following link: Paying in-house AVCs - Tyne and Wear Pension Fund (twpf.info)

Death Grant Nominations

You can now update the nominees for your Death Grant on your mypension account. You can do this by clicking on the 'Membership Details' tab and then clicking on 'Update My Nomination'.

Alternatively, please complete and return our Death Grant Nomination Form which is available on our 'Death Grants and nomination forms' page.

The LGPS Members website provides information about death benefits as well as a wide variety of general information on other topics relating to the LGPS.