Annual benefit statement – Members paying in (active)

Your ABS provides you with details about how much pension you have accrued to date. It allows you to think about what you need for your retirement, whether that is next year, 10, 20 or even 40 years away. It’s never too soon to start thinking about the type of lifestyle you’d like to lead, when you retire.

Your ABS also provides you with details about your pay, it’s important to check these and ensure that they are correct. If you think they are not, you should contact your employer in the first instance.

Check the details on the statement are correct. For example, your pay figures– do they look right? Also, your address and personal details, are they up to date? Is your death grant nomination correct? Ensure that these are all correct.

You can also start to build a picture of what your retirement will be like, based on your pension income, if it’s not what you would like, you can start to plan now for how you can increase this amount.

If you have any questions about your ABS, you should contact your employer in the first instance if it is about your personal information (address, name etc), your pay, or your employment details.

If your query is about your Death Grant Nomination you can contact us using the details on the bottom of our website or via our ‘Online enquiry form’

As a Defined Benefit scheme, your LGPS pension is calculated based on your salary and how long you’ve paid in. The annual pension is not a one-off amount. It will be paid to you each year in retirement for the rest of your life. Currently the average length that a pension is paid, is 20 years.

Your contributions, your employer’s contributions and money made from investments the Fund makes on your behalf are used to fund the pension benefits paid to you at retirement.

As with your contributions, employer’s contributions are used to help fund the pension benefit package you will receive at retirement and are not used to calculate your pension.

The scheme changed in April 2014 from a final salary pension scheme to a CARE scheme. 

The final salary element of your pension requires us to use your membership and pay to calculate that part of your pension.  Details of this membership is shown in the left-hand column. Remember that for part time, term time or seasonal workers the membership shown here is pro rata accordingly.

The CARE scheme pension benefits are shown in the right-hand column. Since the introduction of the CARE scheme in April 2014 the pension calculation does not use membership to calculate your pension but is based purely on the amount of pay received.

This depends on the type of transfer made.

If you’ve transferred in previous membership, from another LGPS, or your transfer purchased membership before 1 April 2014, then this will be included in the membership showing in the left-hand column of section four.

If your transfer in purchased extra pension and was completed between 1 April 2021 – 31 March 2022, it will be shown in section four ‘transfers in’.

If your transfer in earned CARE pension in a previous scheme year, between 1 April 2014 – 31 March 2021, it will not feature as a separate amount on your ABS. It is included in the ‘previous year closing balance’ in section four.

Transfers received after 31 March 2022, will not be shown on your statement.

No. If you pay AVCs you will receive a separate statement from your chosen in-house AVC provider.

Yes, APCs paid between 1 April 2021 – 31 March 2022, are shown in ‘additional pension bought’ (section four). If you paid an APC in previous years, the additional pension will be included in the ‘previous years closing balance’ shown in section four.

Yes, any added years purchased up until 31 March 2022 are included in the membership used to calculate your benefits in section four. The added years will be included in the final salary scheme column on the left-hand side.

No, you will receive an ABS for each separate employment you hold. The pension reference will be different on each statement.   

If you have a previous membership record, for an employment that you no longer pay into the pension scheme with, the ABS for this would be sent separately in July each year.

In most cases, your previous LGPS pension(s) will not automatically transfer over without us writing to you first. If we have not been told about your previous membership, you can complete a Declaration of Previous Pension Rights form (Previous-Right-Form.pdf (cheshirepensionfund.org)) to let us know.

Please note: If you have been in your employment for longer than 12 months, you will need permission from your employer to transfer in any previous LGPS pension(s) in respect of service ending before 1 April 2014.

You can request a transfer into the LGPS if you are within 12 months of joining the LGPS. To begin the process, complete a Transfer Quote Form on our Forms page (on the website).

If you are outside of the 12 months, you will need your employer’s permission first, this will also need your employers Human Resources (HR dept) explicit permission as well. Each employer will have their own published policy on whether they allow this.

The figures provided in section two provide details of the present value of your benefits, as at 31 March 2022. These figures do not take into account any reductions that may be applied to your benefits should you wish to retire early.

If you are thinking about retiring in the next 12-18 months, you can request an estimate of your benefits based on a retirement date of your choosing. You can do that, using this link.

Yes, you can pay towards an Added Pension Contribution (APC) or an Additional Voluntary Contribution (AVC) fund to increase your pension benefits. Visit the section on ‘How do I increase my pension’ on our website.

You also have the option of paying less by opting into the 50/50 section and paying half the contributions in return for half of the benefits. You can use this form to join the 50/50 option instead.

You can take your pension at any age between 55 and 75. However, if you decide to take your pension early (before your Normal Pension Age (NPA)), reductions will be applied, based on how early you are retiring.

Please see our web page: ‘Leaving before retirement age’ for further information.

If you’re thinking of retiring soon, you should read our ‘Planning my retirement’ section, on our website.

Yes, you will have the option to increase your lump sum up to a maximum of 25% of your total pension pot, at retirement.

Section two of your Annual Benefit Statement provides you with the details of the maximum lump sum available to you, based on your pension values as of 31 March 2022.

However, if you decide to take your pension early (before your Normal Pension Age (NPA)), reductions will be applied to your lump sum as well as your pension, based on how early you are retiring.