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Paying into the Scheme

As a member of the Scheme, you pay into it directly from your salary and the amount you pay is based on the actual pay that you earn.

The amount you pay will also benefit from tax relief and until April 2016, you will pay less National Insurance.

The Environment Agency pays in 19% too which goes into the fund to ensure the security of your future pension.

The amount you contribute will depend on your pensionable earnings. These are split into contribution bands and are updated on 1 April every year.

For more details on the contribution bands, read our 'How much will I pay into the LGPS factsheet.

You can also visit our 'How much will it cost' page.

What does this mean for tax and National Insurance contributions?

You receive tax relief on your contributions. This means that if you pay basic rate tax, every £1 that you put into the Scheme only costs you 80p.

The Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) is contracted out of the State Second Pension (S2P). This means that you pay reduced National Insurance contributions, to reflect the fact that the pension you get from the LGPS replaces S2P for the time you are a member.

Contracting out will be abolished from 6 April 2016, as part of the government’s plan to create a single tier state pension. This means from 6 April 2016, you'll no longer pay reduced National Insurance contributions.

For more information on contracting out and the State Pensions go to www.gov.uk/new-state-pension/overview

Is there a limit to how much I can save and still benefit from tax relief?

You benefit from tax relief by paying into this pension scheme and for this reason there are two pension tax tests applied by the taxman. 

An annual allowance test which measures how your pension benefits have increased in a given year, and a lifetime allowance test which calculates the size of your pension pot when you retire, or leave the scheme, and this includes any other pension benefits you have built up elsewhere. Anyone exceeding these allowances may have to pay a tax charge.

For more details about the Annual Allowance and Lifetime Allowance, download our 'Tax controls' factsheet.

You can also visit our 'Tax allowances' page for details about these allowances and calculating a tax charge.

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