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Employers who are yet to implement i-Connect (our secure data transmission service) need to submit a year-end return.
The template for the current year-end return is now available for completion. You can find a copy attached to this page.
The information required relates to year-end contributions and pensionable pay for the period 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025.
Submission deadline
We have a statutory duty to issue our members with Annual Benefit Statements by the 31 August each year. These statements confirm your employees pension positions at the previous 31 March.
In order to issue these statements on time, our deadline for 2024/2025 year-end returns is 25 April 2025.
It is important that accurate information is provided to the Fund by the deadline to help us:
- reconcile previous monthly contribution payments to the year-end return
- resolve any queries
- add data to each member’s pension record
- fully check the data used to produce each member’s Annual Benefit Statement
When you submit the year-end return, please ensure your employer's name is in the subject of the email.
If your organisation is not part of the government secure email domain, please ensure that your email is sent to pensions.tech@derbyshire.gov.uk using one of the following:
- Transport Layer Security (TLS)
- encryption
- with password protection
Missing the deadline
The LGPS regulations allow LGPS Funds to recover costs from employers because of poor performance.
Our Pension Administration Strategy includes examples of when employers may be charged if they fail to meet their responsibilities and generate additional administration costs for the Fund. These include cases where scheme employers submit late or inaccurate year-end returns.
The Strategy outlines the statutory responsibilities of scheme employers, as well as the Fund’s obligations to scheme members and employers to ensure that the pension scheme works efficiently.
Reconciliation
Each month our employers return a contribution return known as a 'CR1 form'.
Before returning the 2024/2025 year-end return, please ensure that you reconcile the figures to the CR1 forms previously returned for 1 April 2024 – 31 March 2025.
The following totals need to match:
- CARE Main Section pensionable pay
- CARE 50/50 section (if applicable)
- Total employees' contributions
- Total employers' contributions
If the totals are different, we will return the year-end return template for amendment.
What to know before you begin
Your year-end return must reflect accurate employee LGPS membership in the Fund between 1 April 2024 and 31 March 2025, including:
- Up-to-date personal information
- Cumulative pay details during the year (including pence)
- Cumulative totals of pension contributions (employee and employer)
- LGPS membership details (for example, joining dates, leaving dates, change dates, periods where Assumed Pensionable Pay applied)
We require one row of information per scheme member for each employment held during the 2024/2025 year. If a scheme member changed posts, you must include a separate entry.
Individuals entered on your year-end return must include:
- all members who were in your employment on 1 April 2024
- all members in your employment on 31 March 2025
- members who left the LGPS during the year (including those who opted out)
- members employed on a casual or relief basis who had previously elected to join the LGPS but were not paid or credited with any Assumed Pensionable Pay during the year
When completing the year-end return, please:
- do not add or remove any columns or change their order
- do not add information to any of the “hidden” columns, as these are for the Fund’s use only
- always include the National Insurance number, even if it is a temporary number
- do not include entries for employees who left or opted out of the LGPS before 1 April 2024 (unless they rejoined or were auto-enrolled back into the scheme during the 2024/2025 year)
Employer forms
Whilst completing your return, please check your records to ensure all necessary forms were submitted during 2024/2025 follows:
- ‘S1 - Starter forms’ for employees who joined the LGPS
- ‘L1 - leaver forms’ for employees who left or opted out of the LGPS
- ‘C1 - Change of personal details forms’ for employees who have changed their name or address
- ‘C2 - Change of employment details forms’ for employees who have had amendments to posts as opposed to new contracts
- ‘C3 - Unpaid absence forms’ for employees who have gaps in their contribution history, such as parental leave
- ‘C4 - Dismissal forms’ if you need to recover money lost due to misconduct
- Application forms for any employees paying Additional Pension Contributions (APC)
If you find that any for these forms have been missed in error, please include these with your return.
You can find these forms on our forms for employers page.
Completing the return: 'Contact details' tab
On this tab please complete:
- The name of your employer
- The name, phone number and email address of the individual responsible for reconciliation queries
- The name, phone number and email address of the individual responsible for member date queries
Completing the return: 'Year-end employers' tab
There is a description underneath each column heading to help identify the information required. This should help to minimise the number of queries which the Fund returns to you.
Please ensure you fully understand the data required in each column before completing the spreadsheet. If you have any queries, please contact: pensions.tech@derbyshire.gov.uk
It is important that you enter all the information in the fields provided and retain the structure and format of the spreadsheet. Please leave any columns that are not relevant to your organisation blank and do not delete.
Please ensure that the date cells are formatted in English (United Kingdom).
Column AC: Full time equivalent pensionable salary at 31 March 2025 (2008 regs)
This must reflect the employee's basic full-time equivalent (FTE) salary rate at 31 March 2025, or at the date of leaving if earlier.
Please complete this column for all members. Their pension record may include transferred-in membership, or LGPS membership with a different employer. This enables the calculation of any LGPS membership before 1 April 2014:
- The salary rate must be adjusted where the member’s contract reflected term-time only or reduced payment days/weeks.
- Do not include any additional payments in this column.
- If the member has been on protected pay, please ensure the FTE rate of this protection is included. This should also be detailed in BF Notes column.
- If a member has been on reduced pay due to sickness, injury, or child-related leave please provide the Assumed Pensionable Pay they would have received had they been in work.
- If there are any employees in receipt of the Living Wage, please quote the FTE of the relevant hourly rate (applying a term time reduction where applicable). For example, 7.83 X 37 X 52.1429) = £15,106.31
- Where employees have left the scheme during the year, please enter the annual full time equivalent pensionable salary as at date of leaving.
Column AD: Additional payments / allowances for period 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025 (2008 regs)
Please provide the total of any additional pensionable payments made which are not included in the FTE salary in column AC.
Please complete this column for all members. Their pension record may include transferred-in membership, or LGPS membership with a different employer. This enables the calculation of any LGPS membership before 1 April 2014:
- Include only the additional pensionable payments which are pensionable for the calculation of pension for LGPS membership before 1 April 2014.
- Do not include non-contractual overtime, additional hours, payments made in respect of accrued annual leave or any elements in respect of protected pay.
- Do not enter negative pensionable payments in the year-end spreadsheet. If there are any such instances these must be resolved prior to submitting the file.
Assumed Pensionable Pay
Assumed pensionable pay (APP) is a notional pensionable pay figure. It is used to ensure that a scheme member’s pension is not affected by any reduction to their pensionable pay due to:
- a period of sickness or injury
- relevant child related leave (for example, maternity, paternity or adoption leave, and any paid additional maternity, paternity or adoption leave)
- members on Reserve Forces Leave
Where APP applies, employer pension contributions are based on the pay which an employee would have received had they not been on reduced pay.
Pension contributions for an employee on reduced or nil pay who is credited with APP are based on the employee’s actual gross pay.
You can find more information about APP and a link to the Local Government Association’s (LGA) bite-size APP training module for LGPS employers on our Assumed Pensionable Pay page.
Column AO or AR: Total Pensionable Pay (CARE)
Please provide the total of CARE Pensionable Pay from 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025 in either:
- Column AO (CARE pay - main section actual pensionable pay), or
- Column AR (CARE pay - 50/50 section actual pensionable pay)
The CARE pensionable pay provided will be used to calculate each member’s pension benefits for the period 01/04/2024 to 31/03/2025. CARE benefits are built up each scheme year and it is essential that this information is accurate.
If a member has been on sickness, injury or child related leave with reduced or no pay, please ensure you include the amount of Assumed Pensionable Pay in this figure. Please also include relevant details in Column AY and Column AZ.
If an employee is paying an Additional Pension Contribution (APC) to cover lost pay due to authorised unpaid absence, do not include this amount of lost actual pay in this column. Please include the APC contributions in the following applicable columns:
- Column O: Member APC - regular contributions
- Column P: Member APC - lump sum
- Column Q: Employer APC - regular contributions
- Column R: Employer APC - lump sum
Column W: Employer Contributions
This must include all employer contributions, including those relating to Assumed Pensionable Pay.
Please complete Column BF with notes about:
- sickness, injury or child-related leave
- whether Assumed Pensionable Pay applies, and if so, please detail if the contributions have been reduced due to half pay / no pay
- the absence dates and unpaid periods if applicable. If there has been a period of unpaid leave, please ensure that a ‘C3 - Unpaid Absence Details’ form has been submitted to the Fund.
Column BA: Casual / relief scheme members
It is essential that all scheme members are listed on the year-end return. This includes members who have not paid pension contributions during the year.
If a member was employed on a relief or casual basis and has not been paid during the period 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025, please enter 'Not worked' in Column BA.
Please ensure all columns on the year-end return are populated where applicable, including the member’s FTE salary.
Column BB: Term time indicator
You need to complete this column if the member was a term-time worker or had reduced pay due to payment days or weeks.
Please provide the applicable payment days or weeks which applied on 31 March 2025 and ensure the FTE Salary in Column AC has been reduced.
Column BC: Increase / Decrease to FTE salary
Please provide a reason in this column if a member’s FTE salary has changed due to:
- regrading
- restructure
- single status
Column BD: Protected pay indicator
Please indicate if member was in receipt of protected pay.
Column BE: Change of Post
If the member has changed post, we will need an entry on the year-end return for each post.
Please complete Column BE with a ‘Y’ indicator. You will also need to enter the dates for each post in Column S (Date joined scheme) Column T (Contribution date).
Column BF: Notes
If any of the totals on the year-end are different to what the Fund will be expecting, please complete Column BF with any explanations and reasons. Completing this column may prevent queries being raised by our Fund or help to resolve queries in a timely manner.
Links to useful documents