Protections

If your full time equivalent pensionable pay reduces, this could reduce the value of your final salary pension. There are protections in place to protect you if this happens. In certain circumstances, you can choose to have your final pay worked out as the average of any three consecutive years ending on 31 March. You’ll have this option if your pay reduces or the increases to your pay are restricted because: 

• you move to a job with less responsibility 
• of a job evaluation exercise or equal pay exercise 
• the pensionable pay in your contract changes – based on the definition of pensionable pay before 1 April 2014, and 
• that happens less than ten years before you leave the LGPS. 

You can’t make use of this protection if your pay is reduced:

• at the end of a period when your pay was temporarily increased
• when you took flexible retirement. 

You must tell us that you want to take this option at least one month before you leave the LGPS. 

Members whose pay reduced before 1 April 2008 may have been given a certificate of protection. This offered similar protection in a similar way. Certificates of protection don’t protect members leaving the LGPS now because more than 10 years have passed since the pay reduction. 

The McCloud remedy for active members 

If you first joined the LGPS or another public service pension scheme before 1 April 2012, the pension you built up between 1 April 2014 and 31 March 2022 may be protected by the McCloud remedy. We’ll automatically check whether the pension you built up during this time would have been higher in the final salary scheme when you take your pension. If it would have been, your pension will be increased accordingly. 

You can find out more about the McCloud remedy on the LGPS member website.