It’s Pensions Awareness week – and it’s never too early or too late to give your pension some attention!
In part 1 of 2 instalments, we want you to think about your financial future. We’ve got some information on the national campaign who have provided some live events to help with this. We have an update on this years’ EAPF webinars, and some helpful tips on understanding what your retirement package could look like, using your statement and some other online tools.
Live shows hosted by national Pensions Awareness week campaign
The national campaign organisers are hosting some live shows this week that you might still catch if you register now. The key message from the campaign is that in the UK, we aren’t saving enough for our future. To increase awareness on all things pensions, they are covering lots of interesting topics - such as state pensions explained, pensions and tax and how women can better their retirement – along with many others.
Sign up for the national live shows here.
Remember these shows are not hosted by the EAPF and so they are not specific to the benefits you hold in the EAPF.
EAPF Pension webinars
Unfortunately, we’re unable to host our live pension webinar events this year for a number of reasons. Don’t worry though, these will be back for 2024 – and we are going to post some pre-recorded video updates for 2023. You can read more about our EAPF webinars in our newsletter which was sent recently.
Read more in our recent newsletter.
You can also catch up on last year's recordings if you can’t wait for this year’s updated series.
Your annual pension statement is online
We notified you on 30 August that your annual pension statement is available to view on your EAPF online portal. Staying on top of how your pension is growing is one of the best ways to consider your future savings, and to understand what the future could look like for you.
Your pension statement tells you the current value of your pension (if you were to leave the scheme now and draw it at your normal pension age (NPA)) and also, what your pension could look like if you remain in the fund until your NPA too.
What it doesn’t account for is the future growth of your salary (or any other changes in your pay if you change your hours or role). It also doesn’t account for any future growth through inflation - we’d need a crystal ball to calculate what this might be! But it will still provide you with a feel for your future finances so that you can understand whether you want to consider topping up your benefits if that’s the right thing for you.
Using your statement with our online resources
Our website and portal have some useful resources which can really help you to narrow down some figures to help with your future planning including:
- Retirement Illustrator – this can be found on our online portal called EAPF Online, so why not have a look when you’ve checked out your statement. You can play around with different retirement dates too.
- Budget planner – this can be found at https://budgetplanner.eapf.org.uk/. You can use this to set out your expected pension income and expected outgoings. Make sure you have some time to sit down with this, as you’ll need to think about your current spending, but also; what your priorities and expectations are for your retirement. It provides an interesting and helpful summary, categorising your spending. It allows you to input your estimated pension so it can tell you if you’re on track for the lifestyle you want in your retirement.
- Topping up pension guidance – after looking at the illustrator and budget planner, you might think about how to top up your pension. We’ve provided a guide which explains the 2 options in the LGPS to do this, and the process for setting these up. Visit our 'I want to pay more' page for more details.
To access your statement in our EAPF Online portal, simply click on your ‘Mailbox’ when logged in and then click on the PDF icon to open your annual pension statement.
If you haven’t registered on to the online portal, you’ll need to in order to see your statements. Don’t forget that when you’re online, you can also use the retirement illustrator too.
View your statement today at portal.eapf.org.uk
EAPF public website tools and resources
The EAPF public website has lots of useful information to help you manage your pension whether you’ve recently joined the Scheme or you’ve been in for years and are approaching retirement.
Our ‘Resources’ section gives you access to our latest member newsletters, publications and forms all in one dedicated place, helping you stay up to date with the Scheme. You’ll also find handy webinar recordings and videos, including our ‘Pensions made simple’ series, to show you everything you’ll need to know about your pension.
Visit our Resources page.
Watch our videos.
Watch our webinar recordings.
Read our factsheets and guides.
Read Part 2 of our EAPF Pension Awareness campaign.