Change in circumstances
We know that sometimes people’s circumstances change. To help you understand how these could affect your pension, please get in touch about any of the following:
Returning to work
Before 1 April 2014
If you’re taking your pension which built up in the LGPS before 1 April 2014, and:
- return to work in local government or
- with an employer who offers LGPS membership
you must tell us about your new job if:
- you’re being paid an augmented pension or
- annual compensation and
- you retired because of redundancy or business efficiency.
You must do this whether you join the LGPS again in your new job or not. We can then let you know whether this affects your pension being paid.
From 1 April 2014
If you’re taking your pension which built up in the LGPS from 1 April 2014, and:
- return to work in local government or
- with an employer who offers LGPS membership
then you don’t need to tell us about your new job. This won’t affect your pension being paid unless you’re paid a tier 3 ill health pension.
If you’re being paid a tier 3 ill-health pension and return to work, then you must tell the employer who gave you the ill-health pension. They’ll let you know whether the payment of your pension should stop. This is the same whether you return to work for the local government or elsewhere, regardless of whether you join a pension scheme again.
Flexible retirement
If you’ve flexibly retired, your pension will not be reduced or suspended if you continue working for the same employer.
If you leave that employer and then:
- return to work in local government or with
- an employer who offers membership of the LGPS and
- part of your pension being paid was built up before 1 April 2014
then you must tell us about your new job. You must do this whether you join the LGPS in your new job or not. We can then let you know whether this affects your pension being paid.
Living abroad
If you live abroad or are thinking of living abroad, we can still pay your pension into your UK bank account.
Or we can pay your pension into an overseas bank account in your name. We use a company called Convera to do this on our behalf. They pay your pension into your bank account, without any extra transaction charges. Please contact us for the bank mandate form for your chosen country.
Please also let us know if you move and change your address.
We’ll send you a ‘proof of existence certificate’ every year. This helps us to stop fraud and protect your pension. It’s very important that you fill in this form and return it to us. If not returned, we’ll stop paying your pension whilst we complete our checks. You can find out more information in our anti-fraud and corruption policy. Take a look in the key documents page for your Fund in the Governance policies section.
Keeping us updated
It’s important that you let us know of any changes to your contact details so that we can keep in touch with you.
Please log into your account and choose ‘Your Details’ to change your contact details. If you haven’t already registered for your online pension account why not do this today? You’ll need your national insurance number handy.
Or, you can fill in our ‘Update’ form.
I need pension information for a divorce or a dissolution of a civil partnership
If you need information for divorce or dissolution of a civil partnership, you’ll need to:
- fill in the ‘Divorce Information Request Pack;’ and then
- send the form to us by uploading it to your online pension account; or
- scanning and emailing it to pensions@westnorthants.gov.uk. We recommend that you password protect any documentation holding confidential information.
We’ll provide the estimate within a 3 month time limit and claim back any costs from:
- you or
- your ex-spouse/ex-civil partner or
- following a court order.
The Court will consider the information we supply when looking at your settlement.
We acknowledge all correspondence that we get in writing. If you don’t get a response, we recommend that you contact us to check this.
Telling us someone has died
It’s important that we’re contacted as soon as possible when a person with an LGPS pension in payment, passes away. This is normally done by the next-of-kin or the person managing the Estate. This is so we can find out if there are any dependents’ benefits due and also keep overpayments small.
The best way to let us know of a death is to use the Governments Tell Us Once service. This service allows you to notify most government organisations in one go.
Or, you can register a death with us directly by emailing pensions@westnorthants.gov.uk
I’m setting up a power of attorney
If you’re thinking of setting up an arrangement to authorise:
- your son/daughter/relative or
- solicitor to deal with your finances or
- you have power of attorney for a person with an LGPS pension
please fill in our ‘Power of attorney’ form. Once you’ve filled in the form, you can return it to us either by:
- securely uploading it to your online pension account, or
- scanning and emailing it to pensions@westnorthants.gov.uk. We recommend that you password protect any documentation that has personal information. Or
- sending it to: Pensions Service, West Northamptonshire Council, The Guildhall, St Giles Square, Northampton, NN1 1DE.
We can only pay pension benefits to a bank account in the member’s name, whether this is a sole or joint account.
You can find useful information about being an appointed attorney on these websites:
