Employer discretions

LGPS Regulations include some ‘discretions’ for which you, as an individual employer, can (and in some cases, must) apply your own policy.

Requirements

The Regulations require that you:

  • publish a written policy statement, confirming how you will exercise the compulsory discretions outlined below and any of the optional discretions allowed under the LGPS that you decide to include
  • review the statement regularly
  • revise it as necessary
  • give us a copy of your policy statement

Your policy statement:

  • will need to cover all the compulsory discretions
  • be set out in a clear and easy to read format
  • may use your own headed paper
Compulsory discretions

You must have a policy statement on the following discretions.

For members who were actively paying into the scheme as at 1 April 2014 onwards

  • Awarding additional pension
  • Voluntary funding of additional pension – shared cost additional pension contributions
  • Flexible retirement
  • Switching on the 85 year rule
  • Waiving of actuarial reductions

For members who left the scheme between 1 April 2008 and before 1 April 2014

  • Switching on the 85 year rule for members with deferred benefits
  • Waiving of actuarial reductions on compassionate grounds for members with deferred benefits

For members who left the scheme between 1 April 1998 and before 1 April 2008

  • Switching on the 85 year rule for members with deferred benefits
  • Whether to grant early payment of pension benefits on or after age 50 and before age 55
  • Waiving of actuarial reductions on compassionate grounds for members with deferred benefits

For members who left the scheme before 1 April 1998

Whether to grant early payment of pension benefits on or after age 50 and before age 55 on compassionate grounds.

If you do not have a policy statement on these discretions

  • You are not complying with the LGPS regulations
  • We cannot process any award of additional pension, flexible retirement, or waiving actuarial reductions for your employees

For further information on these discretions and what they mean, refer to the Discretions template and LGA Discretions guidance

Optional discretions

There are further discretions which you may wish to have a policy on. The following are example discretions that you may wish to have a policy on:

Membership Aggregation – Regulations 22(7)(b) and 22(8)(b)

  • If a member has previous LGPS membership then they will need to decide if they would like to keep these two pension records separate
  • The election to keep separate pension benefits must be made within 12 months of becoming an active member, who must be active at the date of election
  • An employer may allow a period longer than 12 months

Transfers of Pension Rights – Regulation 100(6)

  • Where an active member requests to transfer previous pension rights into the LGPS, the member must make a request within 12 months of becoming an active member
  • An employer may allow a longer period than 12 months

You can have policies on as many discretions as you wish. To view the full list of LGPS discretions go to LGA Discretions.

General information on formulating policies

When drawing up a policy statement, you may wish to consider the following:

Your employer circumstances

The policy should reflect your membership, budgetary constraints and the nature of your business. Just replicating another employer’s policies may not be the right thing for you as an employer.

Cost

The policy should be affordable and not likely to cause a serious loss of confidence in the public service.

'Fettering'

The policy should not be unnecessarily restrictive.

Anti-discrimination laws

The policy must not be discriminatory in any way.

Useful links