Up to 31 March 2009 your contribution is 6% of your contractual pay. If your contract doesn’t have set hours, your contributions come out of the total pay you receive. From 1 April 2009 your contribution will depend on your full time equivalent pay as shown in the table below.
Pay tranche Contribution rate paid on that tranche
Up to and including £18,000 5.50%
Above £18,000 and up to £22,000 7.25%
Above £22,000 and up to £30,000 8.50%
Above £30,000 and up to £40,000 9.50%
Above £40,000 12.00%
To find out your estimated contribution rate from 1 April 2009, click here to go to our new LGPS contribution calculator.
Your employer pays the rest of the cost of providing your benefits. This amount varies but it’s always enough to make sure your pension can be paid. Generally, you pay about a third of the scheme’s costs and your employer pays the rest.
You also get tax relief on your contributions - the tax you pay on your salary is calculated after your pension contributions are deducted. You’ll also pay lower National Insurance contributions on your earnings.
Extra contributions
If you want to get more out when you retire, you can put more into your pension while you’re working. You may be able to buy extra years of membership to the scheme or make additional voluntary contributions. See the section on purchasing additional benefits for more information.
You can also choose to pay into a personal pension plan or stakeholder pension scheme as well as the Local Government Pension Scheme.
Transferring funds from other pensions
You can transfer funds from other pensions into the Local Government Pension Scheme in most cases (except from a pension credit - benefits given to a spouse or civil partner following a divorce or annulment). It’s not always in your best interests to transfer a pension, because there may be fees or you may get less for it if you surrender it early - always get independent financial advice before making this decision. You can find details of independent financial advisors here.
Sickness and maternity, paternity, and adoption.
If you’re on paid sick leave you’ll continue to pay contributions. If you’re on unpaid sick leave, you won’t pay any contributions - but this time will still count towards your total membership.
During paid or unpaid maternity (up to 26 weeks), paternity or adoption leave, you will continue to pay contributions on any pay you receive. This time will continue to count towards your total membership.
If you take more than 26 weeks’ maternity leave, the extra time won’t count towards your total membership. You can top up your total membership when you return to work. The amount you’ll need to pay is calculated using the rate of maternity pay you were earning right before you started unpaid maternity leave.
More information
You can download A Guide to the Local Government Pension Scheme, with full details of all the features and how to take advantage of them, to print out and read when you want. If you would rather receive a copy by post, contact us.
If you’ve got further questions, visit the employee member frequently asked questions page of this site.