Part 2 of our series is for all members – whether you’re still contributing, you’ve left the scheme with deferred benefits or you’re a pensioner receiving your EAPF pension.
National campaign pensions ‘check-in’
The national Pension Awareness campaigners have put together a 'Pensions check-in’ – where the goal is to help you to get ahead, when it comes to understanding your future finances.
There are 6 items on their ‘to do’ list to achieve this. You might look at each point and think ‘I’ll do it later’. For many of the items, they’ll just take a few minutes! The information includes some helpful links and tips to get each item complete. So, what are you waiting for?
View the check-in steps to get ahead
It’s the last day to attend national campaign live shows!
There’s still time to book on to the national campaign 16 September sessions at pensionawarenessday.com
Don’t worry if you don’t manage to join their live shows, they’re being recorded and will be on their website shortly after.
Alongside pensions awareness week, the annual UK wide ‘Pension Attention’ campaign is back, and this year it feels like an appropriate theme for the Environment Agency Pension Fund! The call to ‘pay your pension some attention’ is about planting and nature with a link to ‘growing’ your pension!
Check out the video for yourself by visiting the pension attention website pensionattention.co.uk
Both the Pension Awareness and Pension Attention campaigns include general content that is not specific to the EAPF but may still be useful.
The live shows aren’t to be confused with the EAPF pension webinars which will run through October and November. We’ll give more details on our EAPF webinar sessions in part 3 this week!
Responsible Investments update
Over the last year, there have been significant reforms to how LGPS pension funds, like the EAPF can invest. As part of this, we joined a new pension pool, LPPI in April 2026. You can read more about this at in our news article.
Going forward, EAPF sets the strategic priorities for how we want our assets invested and LPPI implements this.
We’re in the process of drafting our new investment strategy right now and we’d love to hear your views. Please come along to the webinar on 4 November on How the EAPF Invests to tell us what you think.
We’re also currently preparing our annual Stewardship Code submission which we’ll submit to the Financial Reporting Council by 31 October 2026. This document explains how we invest responsibly and use stewardship to support our funding objectives by protecting long-term returns and managing risk. Climate change and nature degradation present a material risk to our Fund so this document focuses on our approach addressing these risks, supported by case studies. We also use the Stewardship Code to report on progress towards our 2045 net zero target which you can hear more about in our webinar on 4 November.
You can book your place on our ‘How the EAPF invests’ webinar at bookwhen.com/eapf-pension-webinars
How you get in touch with EAPF is changing
We’re updating the way members can get in touch with the EAPF. The changes coming in are designed to strengthen security and better protect your personal information, keeping it safe and secure.
From 1 January 2027, our pension enquiries email address at info@eapf.org.uk will no longer be in use for member enquiries. Instead, you’ll be able to get in touch using the EAPF Online portal, or you can still contact Capita by telephone or post.
Why are we making this change?
The EAPF Online Portal provides a secure, encrypted way to store and manage your information. In contrast, email communications can be more vulnerable to phishing attempts and cyber-attacks, increasing the risk of sensitive information being compromised.
This change aligns with industry best practice, as many financial services organisations now use secure online portals to communicate with customers and members. By moving correspondence to the EAPF Online Portal, we can better protect your personal and confidential information and reduce the security risks associated with email communication.
What do I need to do?
To get ready for this change on 1 January 2027, if you haven’t already done so, you’ll need to register for the EAPF Online portal. Registering is easy, just visit portal.eapf.org.uk
You’ll need your National Insurance number, a mobile number and valid email address. Select the ‘Register’ button at the top of the homepage and follow the simple instructions to get started.
If you’ve already registered for the EAPF Online portal, you can send Capita your queries via the secure contact form by selecting ‘Contact Us’ from your portal homepage or by using the link from your portal Mailbox.
For more details about using the portal, visit www.eapf.org.uk/portalhelp.
The most secure way to raise an enquiry about your pension is by logging into EAPF Online portal and using our Contact Us form.
Log in or register to EAPF Online
Pensions Dashboards – the importance of keeping pension funds up to date
The Pensions Dashboard programme is a national initiative, driven and implemented by the UK government, which will enable individuals to access their pensions information online, securely and all in one place. It’s getting closer to launching, but there is still a way to go yet, with user testing being an important stage before it’s ready.
The key aim of the programme is to enable users to view all their various pension savings, including their State Pension, in a secure environment. It will display clear information and contact links to their pension providers. Potentially, this means many users will perhaps discover some pension benefits that they may have forgotten about, which is a positive step forward for both members and pension funds, who have lost touch with former members.
For this project to be the most effective, it’s so important that your pension funds, (past and present – not only the EAPF) are kept up to date with any changes to both your contact details and any important changes in your circumstances. This will make it far easier for the project to link all the relevant pensions information that applies to you.
The EAPF have been working closely with Capita from the early stages, and we successfully managed to connect to the Dashboard in late 2025. We’ll keep you posted as we learn more.
For more details visit www.pensionsdashboardsprogramme.org.uk/progress-update-report
Updating your death grant nomination
On the theme of keeping your records up to date, your loved ones being covered financially in the event of your death is one of the most important benefits of being a member of the EAPF. The Scheme provides valuable protection for your dependants, whether you die before or after you retire. The amount that may be payable depends on certain criteria and whether you’re a contributing, deferred or pensioner member.
It’s important to regularly check and make sure your nomination is still correct, especially if your circumstances have changed. We’ve created some case studies to help show how people can be affected by forgetting to update or make a nomination. The easiest way to make or update a nomination is via EAPF Online, your personal pension portal by selecting ‘My Nomination’ once logged in.
For details on how much could be paid, how to make a nomination and to see our case studies, see our Death grant nominations page.
See Part 1 of our Pension Awareness Week campaign