Your local government pension is reviewed each April in line with price increases.
Changes to your pension are based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI) and its measure of inflation as at the previous September.
If there's been an increase in the CPI, the government will confirm the increase and we’ll apply it to your pension from the first Monday after 5 April.
The increase applied is published on the LGPS member website.
Payslips
Unless your pension changes, you’ll only receive a payslip at the following times:
- the first time you receive your pension
- every March – your last full month at the previous rate
- every April – usually a month when your pension is worked out from 2 different annual rates
- every May – your first full month at the new rate
- at other times when your pension has changed by at least 1%
If you move to a different address please let us know, so we can make sure you receive your payslip.
Please be aware that if your payslip is returned to us, we will suspend your pension until we hear from you.
Changes from April 2024
If you had been receiving your pension for the whole year before, it will, in most cases, have increased by 6.7% from 8 April 2024.
However, if your pension only began during the previous year, the first adjustment to your pension will have been a proportion of the full increase.
Also, if part of your pension includes a Guaranteed Minimum Pension (GMP), the pension increase for that part of your pension may be paid differently.
Guaranteed Minimum Pensions
A Guaranteed Minimum Pension (GMP) is the minimum amount of pension your local government pension must include because the LGPS was contracted out of the State Earnings Related Pension Scheme (SERPS) for any pensionable service before 6 April 1997.
If you reached your state pension age before 6 April 2016 and you paid into the LGPS between 6 April 1978 and 5 April 1997 your local government pension may include a GMP based on the state pension entitlement you would have earned if you were in SERPS at the time. If you have a GMP it is paid as part of your local government pension, not as an extra amount.
- If you paid into your local government pension before 6 April 1988, any GMP element of your pension will be increased every April by the government and the increase will be paid through your state basic pension.
- If you paid into your local government pension after 6 April 1988, we'll increase any GMP element of your pension up to a maximum of 3%. If the increase is higher, any remaining increase will be paid by the government and will be paid with your state basic pension.
If you're under 55 and your pension hasn’t increased
If you're under 55 and your last local government employer agreed to the release of your pension due to a reason other than ill health, you won’t receive any pensions increases until you reach 55.
When you reach 55, your pension will increase to the level it would have been, had it increased every year since your date of retirement.