Access & Fairness changes

These changes have been introduced to make death benefits fairer and easier to administer: 

• Survivor benefits will be ‘equalised’, which means they will be calculated in the same way regardless of gender. 

• The age 75 limit for death grants will be removed, so a death grant can be paid regardless of the age at which a member dies. 

• The rules about who can receive a death grant are being simplified. Administering authorities (the organisation that looks after your pension) will no longer have to pay the grant to a member’s estate if it has not been paid within two years. 

• A cohabiting partner will no longer need to have been formally nominated for deaths between 1 April 2008 and 31 March 2014. 

• Minor changes are being made to short-term children’s pensions. 

Buying back pension lost during unpaid leave 

The following changes have been introduced for members choosing to buy back any pension lost during unpaid leave.  

• The cost of buying back lost pension will be based on the normal contribution rates paid by both the member and employer for absences of 15 days or more. 

• These arrangements will be called Qualifying Additional Pension Arrangements (QAPAs). 

• Members will have up to one year after they return to work to apply to buy back any lost pension, instead of the current 30‑day deadline. 

• Employers will be allowed to contribute to the cost even where unpaid leave lasts longer than three years. 

• Any missing pension benefits that are bought back will count towards survivor pensions and not be reduced if the member retires early due to redundancy or business efficiency (over the age of 55). 

Please note: these new rules will only apply where the period of unpaid leave begins after 31 March 2026. 

Short periods of unpaid absence 

For authorised unpaid absences of 14 days or less, pension contributions will still be payable. These will now be based on the pay the member would have received if they had not been absent. 

The following improvements have been introduced for members who take unpaid family leave: 

For members who take unpaid additional maternity leave, unpaid additional adoption leave or unpaid shared parental leave, their pension will be based on assumed pensionable pay (APP) during these periods. This means their pension will continue to build up as if they were receiving your normal pay. 

Gender pension gap reporting 

To help monitor fairness, pension funds will start reporting on the gender pension gap in the 2025 valuation report, with more detailed reporting from 2028. This will help identify and address differences in pension outcomes between men and women.

In April 2024, the Government removed the lifetime allowance (the limit on how much you could save in pensions before paying extra tax). 

As a result, references to the lifetime allowance are being taken out of LGPS regulations. The rules for calculating some pension lump sums are being updated to reflect the new lump sum allowances that were introduced.  

For most members, these changes will not affect the benefits they receive. You can find more information about lump sum allowances here. 

Some small technical changes have been made to ensure the LGPS regulations work correctly with the McCloud age discrimination remedy, which protects certain members who were in the scheme before April 2012. 

These changes mainly affect how benefits are calculated in specific circumstances and will not affect most members. 

You can find more information about the McCloud remedy and whether it affects you here.