A forum for open discussion on communities and local government policy.

New-look Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS)

This forum is designed to give all people with an interest in the Local Government Pension Scheme the chance to discuss any issues raised by the proposed changes to the LGPS and to ask the Communities and Local Government team questions.

On 23 November the Minister for Local Government and Social Cohesion Phil Woolas, MP, announced to Parliament a series of proposals for changes to the existing LGPS. These are designed to make sure that the Scheme remains viable, affordable and fair. The proposals are based upon the results from the consultation that took place over the summer (30 June – 29 September). The consultation paper and the findings can be found at www.communities.gov.uk/lgps along with proposals for the new-look Scheme.

The Minister’s statement has set in motion a three-month consultation period. As part of that consultation, this forum gives you the opportunity to:

  • give us your feedback;
  • let us know what you think about the proposals; and
  • ask any questions that you may have.

Communities and Local Government staff check the forum regularly and will attempt to participate and answer all questions where appropriate.

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Contributions

Posted by robert100 on 02/06/2007 - 13:38

Hello

Please can your confirm if I am correct in thinking that there will only be two contribution rates 5.5 for upto 12000 and 7.5 for over 12000 and this is on the pay as at 1st April or pay at joining, and this replaces the banded rates as stated in regs laid in parliament on 4th April 2007

Thanks

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Flexible Retirement

Posted by Neilson on 23/05/2007 - 09:34

I hope that local authorities will devise sensible qualifying criteria which are in keeping with current equal opportunities expectatons. It is common for women returning from maternity leave (quite understandably)to demand and negotiate very flexible reduced working hours. There has been some indication that there may not be such a flexible approach to flexible retirement.
I would suggest that if this were indeed to be the approach then there could be a case to be anmswered under equal opportunities legislation on grounds of ageism and sexism!!
Let common sense and fair play prevail please.

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Thank you

Posted by Charlotte Hine-... on 01/03/2007 - 12:15

Thank you all very much for your many contributions to this discussion forum.

The statutory consultation period has now ended and this forum will close on Friday 2 March.

The aim of establishing this discussion forum was to facilitate and improve communication between members, administrators and Communities officials regarding the proposed LGPS Benefit Regulations. We regret that we were unable to provide responses to posts concerning individuals’ concerns about their particular pension. These are more suitable for the relevant pensions administering authority to resolve.

However, the debate that has taken place has illustrated that we were successful in achieving our principal goals.

Due to the success of this forum, we are launching The New-Look Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) – Post-Consultation forum (http://forum.communities.gov.uk/lgps2) from Monday 5 March. We hope that you will join us there for further discussions on the subject of the LGPS.

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Final replies to posts

Posted by Charlotte Hine-... on 28/02/2007 - 16:14

Over the period of the statutory consultation, many of you have posted similar comments and queries about the LGPS Draft Regulations. As previously, I set out below responses to the more recent of these posts. This may mean that whilst your name may not appear, the question you’ve posed has been covered by a similar post. Alternatively, the subjects of comparing the LGPS to other public sector pension schemes, the Rule of 85, AVCs and comparisons between the Scottish and Northern Irish schemes in comparison to the LGPS in England and Wales were dealt with in significant detail in the letter to all registered interests sent on 14 February. This is available by clicking through the links on the LGPS website to the archive site (http://www.xoq83.dial.pipex.com/whatsnew.htm). In this way, I hope to have covered all areas that you have raised. The exception is in the case of individuals posting queries about their specific cases for retirement. We are not able to provide conclusive responses to such posts and strongly advise that you consult your pension managers.

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Special provisions for staff transferred from NHS Colleges

Posted by Johnh on 28/02/2007 - 15:29

Under the current regulations there are special provisions for staff who transferred to the LGPS from former NHS COlleges of Nursing. I can fund no mention of these arrangements (including the right to retire after 50 without employers consent) in the new regulations. Are they just disappearing under the new scheme and, if so, what is being done to alert people affected?

John

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CLOSE OF CONSULTATION

Posted by Charlotte Hine-... on 27/02/2007 - 18:36

The statutory consultation on the LGPS Draft Regulations officially closes tomorrow, Wednesday 28 February. All responses not yet submitted should be emailed to lgpensions@communities.gsi.gov.uk with “Consultation Response” in the subject line.

Due to the success of the LGPS discussion forum, we’re going to continue using it as a medium for you to communicate with one another and with us.

From Monday 5 March we will be switching to a new discussion thread to prevent overloading the current thread, although you will still be able to log in and view this discussion. As we have done here, we will address common themes and questions that you may have. However, like with this thread, the LGPS team will not be able to answer questions about specific cases – these should be referred to individuals’ pension managers.

It is still possible to submit your registration for scheme updates by sending your email contact details to the address above and don’t forget that all relevant documents produced in relation to the LGPS are available through the link on the main LGPS website.

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Local Government Pension Scheme

Posted by Polignac on 24/02/2007 - 11:17

1. Consultation on this is poor and inaccessible to most people. I found this site by accident. Most work colleagues are in the dark about it.
2.Disrimination. Any age rules are disriminatory - e.g women get state pension at 60, men wait till 65. I'm too old to get a young person's railcard. Police etc can take their pension at younger ages. Don't use this as an excuse to abolish the 85 year rule.
3. Early retirement is open to abuse by some councils to reward/buy off those they favour or fear.Clear rules needed to govern cases where they can depart from the usual entitlement.
4. There is no justification for levying a higher percentage rate of contribution on those earning above a fairly modest amount.Pension fund contributions should not be used as a redistributive tax. The tax allowance argument only applies to those on very high salaries and won't apply to most people.

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LGPS Update

Posted by Johnh on 21/02/2007 - 16:26

Thank you for correcting the link.

Whilst the letter is now available on the site the important attachment to it does not appear to be.

On another matter I believe that the GAD has amended the actuarial reduction percentages but the new ones do not yet appear to be on the site - are they in force?

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Website link

Posted by Charlotte Hine-... on 21/02/2007 - 16:17

Many thanks for pointing out the hiccup, johnh. The website address in my previous post has been edited and now reads: http://www.xoq83.dial.pipex.com/whatsnew.htm This website is regularly updated with all documents from the LGFPS division.

Charlotte

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LGPS update

Posted by Johnh on 21/02/2007 - 16:07

The site link given by Charlotte Hine on 15/2/07 at http://www.xoq83.pipex.com/whatsnew.htm
is not working and the site seems to be dead - it has been out of date for a long time.
Can we have a new link please?

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