New Starter Guide December 2017 | Page 28

Deferred benefits If you leave before your Normal Pension Age and you meet the 2 years vesting period you will be entitled to deferred benefits within the LGPS. Your deferred LGPS benefits will be calculated as described in the How is my pension worked out section using the length of your membership up to the date that you left the scheme. During the period your pension benefits are deferred they will be increased each year in line with the cost of living. Unless you decide to transfer your deferred benefits to another pension scheme, they will normally be paid unreduced at your Normal Pension Age, but: • they may be put into payment earlier and in full if, because of ill health, you are permanently incapable of doing the job you were working in when you left the LGPS and you are unlikely to be capable of undertaking any gainful employment within 3 years of applying for the benefit or by your Normal Pension Age, whichever is the earlier; or • you can, if you wish, elect to receive your deferred benefits early from age 55 onwards, or • you can, if you wish, elect not to draw your deferred benefits at your Normal Pension Age and defer drawing them till some time later (although they must be paid by age 75). Benefits paid earlier than your Normal Pension Age, other than on the grounds of permanent ill health, may be reduced to take account of their early payment and the fact that your pension will be paid for longer. Conversely, benefits paid after your Normal Pension Age will be increased. 26 SouthYorkshirePensionsAuthority If you leave with deferred benefits and you die before they come into payment, a lump sum death grant equal to 5 years’ pension will be paid. If you have deferred benefits and are also an active member of the scheme when you die this may impact on the death grant you receive. The LGPS allows you to say who you would like any death grant to be paid to by completing a Lump Sum Death Grant Nomination Form available from SYPA. The scheme’s administering authority, however, retains absolute discretion when deciding on who to pay any death grant to. You can find out how to contact SYPA at the end of this guide. If you leave with deferred benefits and die before they come into payment a spouse’s, civil partner’s or, subject to certain qualifying conditions, an eligible cohabiting partner’s pension and pensions for eligible children are payable. For each year of membership you built up from 1 st April 2014 to your date of death you would have been credited with a pension equal to a proportion (i.e. 1/49 th or, for any period you were in the 50/50 section of the scheme, 1/98 th ) of the pensionable pay (or assumed pensionable pay where applicable) you received during that year. The pension payable to a spouse, civil partner or eligible cohabiting partner is calculated on a different proportion i.e. 1/160 th of the pensionable pay (or assumed pensionable pay where applicable) to which is added 49/160 ths of the amount of any pension credited to your pension account following a transfer of pension rights into the scheme from another pension scheme or arrangement. For final salary membership built up before 1 st April 2014 the pension payable to a spouse or civil partner is equal to 1/160 th of your final pay times the period of your membership in the scheme up to 31 st March 2014 upon which your pension is based, unless you marry or enter into a civil partnership after retiring in which case it could be less. For an eligible cohabiting partner the calculation is the same but the pension is only based on the period of membership after 5 th April 1988 (plus any of your membership before 6 th April 1988 for which you’ve paid additi