your pensions forecast

2013

IntroductionHere is your pensions forecast from GMPF, your staff pension scheme. Last time round we introduced a new format with far less notes to keep things clear & simple, and different versions of the stationery depending on when you joined the Scheme. This new format seemed very popular so we have kept to a very similar design this year.

Final salary benefitsYour local government pension has always been a final salary pension scheme. This means we add up your total membership, then use this with your final pay, to work out your benefits.

Changes in the pipelineAs you may know by now, we are changing to something called a career average scheme from April 2014. We don’t have all the details from the Government yet, but we do know it is definitely going ahead.

This gives us a big headache with your pensions forecast this year...

Under the current scheme rules we have to base your forecast on the current final salary scheme. This is fine for showing you the current value of your pension benefits, based on your membership up to 31 March 2013 and your current pay.

But it also means we have to forecast your future benefits on a final salary basis, when we know that in reality we will all start building up career average benefits from April 2014 - as explained on the facing page. It means that for this year at least, we will still have to show your total membership to age 65, and use this with your current pay to illustrate the value of your retirement benefits.Unfortunately, that’s all the scheme rules allow us to do for this year, so please bear with us at this time.

powerpension

Don’t get ambushed by the

pension cowboys

Preview of new look Local

Government Pension

Scheme

DECEMBER 2012, issuE 32

PEN POWER December2012.indd 1

04/06/2013 12:39

Click on the LGPS 2014 link on our homepage

Publications/Pension Power, December, 2012

How will my benefits change under a career average scheme?The way we build up benefits is different under a career average scheme. We will each build up a portion of our pay in benefits, as each year goes by. Those benefits will then be ‘banked’ and rolled forward to the next year, where - assuming there’s been some inflation - they will go up in line with prices.From what we can see so far, most members should build up bigger career average benefits then the final salary benefits shown here.That’s because in the new scheme, you will build up a bigger slice of your pay each year - you will build up 1/49th, rather than 1/60th. And also, overtime pay will count towards your benefits in the new scheme. You can find out more about the new scheme on our website, www.gmpf.org.uk by reading our last Pension Power or watching a short video we have made.

About you

Membership is one of the key things we use in a final salary scheme to work out your benefits. It includes how long you’ve paid in, plus transfers in from other schemes and any extra membership you have bought.

£

Your name:

Your National Insurance number:

Your current employer:

Your email address:

Your phone number:

Your date of birth:

Your hours of work:

Your pay:

Your membership to 31 March 2013:Your membership to age 65:

Your unique membership number if you need to contact us. This forecast only shows your

benefits with this employer.

This is the hours we had on record at 31 March 2013.

Pay & gradingHave you been affected by a pay & grading exercise which has resulted in a reduction in pay?

l If you have opted to split your benefits, you will have a separate deferred benefits forecast too.

l If you haven’t split your benefits and leave within 10 years of the pay cut, you can ask us to use an ‘earlier better pay’ than the one shown here.

This is your pay for the year up to 31 March 2013. We have based it on your pension contributions over the year.

Your forecast won’t give a true picture if your pay has been higher or lower than usual over the year, due to things like sickness absence, or maternity leave.

If you think

your pay or hours are wrong, please speak to

your employer.

If your email

or phone number is wrong or blank, please let us know at GMPF by

using the contact us page on our website. Please put

contact details in the comments box.

Your final salary benefits

Pension: (per year)

Pension: (per year)

When you retire, you will get a pension from us - in other words an income for your lifetime - and the option of a one off tax free lump sum as well.

£

£

Your benefits at 31 March 2013

Your benefits at age 65

Membership FROM

April 2008x

Pay ÷ 60

Here’s how we have worked out your pension...

Important choices at retirementWe have shown the standard package of benefits here. But if you like, just before you retire, you can choose to give up some pension to create a lump sum. If you choose this option, every £1 of pension will give you £12 of lump sum. In the same way every £1,000 of pension

you give up will give you £12,000 of lump sum, and so on. There are limits on the size of the tax free lump sum you can take, so this limits how much pension you can give up. We will work this out for you close to retirement, and let you know.

Notes:

Benefits at age 65

Benefits at March 2013 This shows what you have built up towards your retirement benefits.

Remember,

this is only a forecast

and is not legally binding

and your actual benefits

may be different.

Your death benefitsIf you die in service, the value of your lump sum life cover at 31 March 2013 is:

Lump sum life cover (one off payment):

Dependant’s pension (per year):

£

£

Dependants’ pensionsThe figure shown here is an indication of the amount of pension we would pay to one of the following:

Your husband or wife

Your civil partner

Your nominated cohabiting

partner

or or

Partners’ pensions

Need a Partners Pensions nomination form? Go to www.gmpf.org.uk, call us on 0161 301 7000, or ask your employer.

Partners Pensions nomination form

NOV2012

And the value of your dependant’s pension is:

Lump sum life cover

Need a Lump Sum nomination form? Go to www.gmpf.org.uk, call us on 0161 301 7000, or ask your employer.

We also pay

pensions to eligible children. The amount

varies depending on how many children you have,

and whether we are paying pensions to other

dependants as well.

Partners Pensions nomination form

NOV2012

Topping up your benefitswith AVCsAdditional Voluntary Contributions – or AVCs for short – are an easy way of boosting your pension benefits. With AVCs you build up a separate pot from your main GMPF benefits, then when you retire, draw them either as tax free cash, an extra pension or perhaps both.

Funds like GMPF offer AVCs through outside organisations – here at GMPF we use Prudential. In fact this year is the 25 year anniversary of us working in partnership with Prudential. And we now have almost 5000 members topping up their benefits in this way.

Efficient & flexibleAVCs are efficient and flexible…

l AVCs are taken straight from your pay, just like your normal pension contributions

l as long as you’re a tax payer, you get tax relief too,

l there is no minimum or maximum period over which you have to pay AVCs,

l you can start / stop / increase / decrease your AVCs at any time,

l the earlier you start, the more time you have to build up a reasonable amount.

To find out more about AVCs and how they can help you boost your benefits, see our Topping up Benefits booklet, call Prudential directly, or visit their website:

Freephone 0800 731 0466www. pru.co.uk/localgov

Did you know.... you can pay AVCs to provide extra life cover

too?

52G M P F & P R U D E N T I A L

Y E A R S

Already paying AVCs?If so, your AVCs aren’t included in this forecast, unless you have already transferred them across to count as extra membership.

Remember you can now access your AVC account online at www.pru.co.uk/localgov - just click on existing customer, then AVC log in and simply follow the registration details.

Your notes

52G M P F & P R U D E N T I A L

Y E A R S

Can we help you?Here are the ways you can find out more or get in touch with us. If you do contact us, please quote your National Insurance number.

Please let us know if you move house or if this didn’t come to the right address...

Call our friendly helpline...

0161 301 7000

@GMPF_LGPS

Visit our website to find out more or to contact us by email...

www.gmpf.org.ukFollow us on Twitter...

Call in and see us... GMPF, Concord Suite, Manchester Rd, Droylsden, M43 6SF.