Leavers
There’s two different ways of letting us know if your employee is leaving the LGPS. They depend on their reason for leaving:
i-Connect
If your employee is leaving for any of the reasons below you can let us know through i-Connect.
- voluntary resignation
- end of fixed term contract not treated as redundancy
- redundancy under 55
- dismissal
- opting out of the LGPS
For all the reasons above your employee’s pension will be treated as deferred once they’ve left as long as they’ve been paying into the LGPS for at least 2 years.
Forms
If your employee is leaving for any of the reasons below, please fill in our retirements form.
- voluntary retirement 55+
- flexible retirement
- redundancy 55+
- business efficiency dismissal / end of contract by mutual agreement 55+
- ill health retirement
- age 75
If an employee dies whilst still paying into the LGPS you need to fill in a death form. You should also email or call us as soon as you find out about their death. We’ll need the member’s:
- name
- National Insurance number
- date of death
- next of kin name, address, and phone number/email address, if known.
Employer tasks
For all the reasons above, you must complete these tasks before we can process their pension:
- Tell us the date they’re leaving and reason. This is important as it affects the amount and type of benefits.
- Work out their final pensionable pay .
- Work out their cumulative pensionable pay during the current financial year.
- Give the member any forms that may be relevant. For example, if they want to transfer their benefits – send a transfer form.
- If you’re exercising a discretion, use the employer discretion form to let us know.
Getting an estimate for pension strain costs
There may also be costs that you need to pay, often referred to as strain costs. Strain costs depend on the:
- number of years the member retires early
- value of their unreduced pension
- early retirement factors.
For redundancies over 55, you can use i-Connect to estimate these costs. For other cases, fill in an employer estimate form and email it to pensions@westnorthants.gov.uk. The costs are based on the member’s circumstances and factors at the time the estimate is made (see above). If these change, the strain costs may also change. If the early retirement factors change after we’ve given you a quote, we’ll honour the original factors used for up to 3 months after the estimate has been provided. If the most recent estimate is older than 3 months before their retirement, please contact us for a new estimate.
You should take special care if your leaver has another job or is starting a new job with you.
For details on the steps members and employers need to take for different retirement types, visit the retirement page.
