What to do if a member is away from work
Assumed pensionable pay (APP)
The LGPS has a way of protecting a member’s pension if they’re away from work for:
- sickness and injury
- ordinary child related leave like maternity, paternity, and adoption leave
- reserve forces service leave.
This is called assumed pensionable pay (APP). If a member gets reduced or no pay because of one of the reasons above, you need to make sure their pension isn’t reduced. To do this, you must treat the member as if they haven’t been away from work when you give us their pensionable pay.
During this time, members will only pay contributions on the pensionable pay they get. They’ll stop paying contributions if their absence becomes unpaid. You’ll still need to continue paying full employer contributions based on the APP.
To find out how to work out APP, please go to the ‘Work out your members’ pay page. The LGPS also has some bite size training on APP.
Types of absence where LGPS pension isn’t protected
If a member’s away from work because of:
- authorised unpaid leave (other than illness and injury)
- strike action
- unauthorised absence
- unpaid periods of additional child related leave
their LGPS pension isn’t protected. You won’t need to work out and report APP or pay employer contributions if a member isn’t being paid. If a member is on reduced pay or no pay for the reasons above, their pension will be reduced.
If a member comes back to work, they may want to buy back the pension they’ve lost. They can do this through buying additional pension contributions (APCs). You can find more information on the different types of absence in the LGPS HR guide.
