Transferring your benefits

If you leave local Government employment with a deferred LGPS benefit, you can decide whether to leave your benefit in the Scheme, where they will increase with inflation each year. Or you may decide to transfer them to a new Employer’s scheme or into a personal pension plan. This could even be to an overseas pension scheme.

You cannot transfer your benefits within one year of your Normal Pension Age, either under the LGPS 2007 or LGPS 2013, regardless if you left before or after 1 April 2014.

If you are thinking about transferring your pension out of the LGPS, we strongly recommend you watch the above video which explains the difference between a Defined Benefit and Defined Contribution pension scheme, and the protections you will be giving up.

The video also draws your attention to the dangers of pension scams, and the things to look out for when transferring your pension. Such as offering you unrealistic investment returns if you transfer, unusual investments options and applying pressure for you to make a hasty decision to transfer usually to a fake scheme. Your pension then disappears, never to be seen again – so please always be very careful.

Always check if the company you are dealing with is a legitimate business, by checking your chosen pension provider is registered with the Financial Conduct Authority.

You can find out even more about protecting yourselves against scams by visiting the Pension Regulator.

How do I transfer my deferred benefits?

If you want to transfer your pension benefits out of the LGPS, you must contact your new pension provider and ask them to request a transfer value from us. They will need you to complete some Transfer Authorisation Forms, which gives them authorisation to contact us and request a quotation from The Cardiff and Vale of Glamorgan Pension Fund. When we send out a transfer quotation it will be guaranteed for 3 months from the date of calculation. If you are transferring your LGPS benefits to a Defined Contribution arrangement and the transfer value of your LGPS benefits is over 30K, you MUST have obtained advice from an Independent Financial Advisor (IFA) authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) – there may be a charge for this.

Re-joining the LGPS with another Local Government Pension Fund

If you are re-joining or have already re-joined the LGPS in another pension Fund in England or Wales, you must tell The Cardiff and Vale of Glamorgan Pension Fund:

1. you have declared that you have a deferred pension benefit within Cardiff and Vale of Glamorgan Pension Fund
2. you are an active member in another LGPS Fund in England and Wales
3. you are an active member of any intervening service in any other public service pension scheme (even if a refund of contributions has been received in respect of that service)

Points 1 and 2 are needed to ensure that you are given all the appropriate options available to you about the aggregation of your benefits. If you fail to inform us that point 3 applies to you, certain statutory rights may not be applied to your benefits. For example to a final salary link should you decide to aggregate any pre 1 April 2014 LGPS membership.

If you transfer your pension to a fund outside of the LGPS, you will NOT be entitled to any further benefits from the LGPS for yourself or any survivors.