
News
McCloud, what are we doing? (20 October 2023)
Now that legislation for delivering the McCloud remedy has been published, we will be reviewing all ‘in scope’ benefit entitlements.
To have an ‘in scope’ benefit entitlement you had to be an employee member of the LGPS prior to 01 April 2012 and during the period between 01 April 2014 and 31 March 2022, with no disqualifying break in membership of a public service pension scheme of five or more years.
If before 1 April 2012 you were either an employee member of a different public service pension scheme or an employee member of the LGPS with in a different LGPS fund and have not transferred those benefits into Worcestershire Pension Fund, please contact us with those details, as we will not be aware of them and cannot therefore bring you ‘in scope’.
Although it will take us time to review every benefit entitlement ‘in scope’, you do not need to do anything unless we are unaware of your other public sector pension scheme membership. All ‘in scope’ benefits due an increase will be backdated. You can find out more about the McCloud remedy at The McCloud Remedy :: LGPS (lgpsmember.org) and Guides and sample documents (lgpsregs.org).
We will update our website with our progress in delivering the remedy. In line with regulatory guidance we will be delivering the McCloud remedy for all new benefit payments we make after 30 September 2023 and prioritising cases where a member or survivor pension is in payment. We will also include details of how McCloud affects members in their annual benefit statement for 2025.
2023 employee benefit statements and newsletters (14 August 2023)
You should receive yours by early September along with our 2023 employee newsletter (PDF).
If, once you have yours, you are thinking about contacting us about your statement, we recommend that you first read our 2023 employee benefit statements FAQs (PDF).
If you contact us, we would appreciate you bearing with us if our phones are busy and whilst we work through our inbox.
Deferred benefit statements 2023 (27 June 2023)
We have issued these and our 2023 newsletter for deferred members.
If you have not received yours, it is possible that we do not hold an up to date address for you, in which case please provide us with your current address using our Notify Change of Personal Circumstances Form.
You can scan and email the form to us.
For security reasons, we are not able to accept address changes over the phone.
We always recommend that members who move advise us of their new address.
If you have contacted us about your deferred benefit statement, we would appreciate you bearing with us if our phones are busy and whilst we work through our inbox.
We expect our 2023 employee benefit statements and newsletters to be on doormats by early September.
The latest on government consultations (31 May 2023)
Fair Deal: The proposed amendments (GOV.UK) to the LGPS Regulations would, in most cases, give transferred staff the right to stay as members of the LGPS.
Male survivor benefits: The Chief Secretary to the Treasury has made a written statement on remedying survivor benefits for opposite-sex widowers and surviving male civil partners where male survivors remain entitled to a lower survivor benefit than a comparable same-sex survivor.
Restriction of public sector exit payments in England: £95K cap disapplied: The government has announced that parts of the restrictions on public sector exit payments that came into force in November are disapplied. The Treasury’s updated guidance states: “After extensive review of the application of the Cap, the Government has concluded that the Cap may have had unintended consequences and the Regulations should be revoked. HMT Directions have been published that disapply the Cap until the Regulations have been revoked.”
Tax relief for low earners: Following a consultation the government has announced that it will introduce a system allowing low-earning individuals saving in a pension scheme using a net pay arrangement to claim top-up payments from HMRC in respect of tax relief on contributions made from 2024 / 2025 onwards.
Target Professional Services (UK) (23 March 2022)
We are currently working with a company called Target Professional Services (UK) who help pension schemes find members who they may have lost touch with.
If you are a deferred member of the Fund, you may be contacted by them and asked to complete a verification exercise.
Please confirm your details and verify your address with Target.
This will allow us to update our records with any changes and keep in contact with you in the future to send you updates about your pension and make payment of your benefits when they are due.
You can read more about Target at www.targetprofessional.co.uk
Investing in Russia (7 March 2022)
Our first hope is for a resolution to the current situation in Ukraine.
As far as investments are concerned, the situation is having an impact on broad asset markets and is complex and fast moving.
As we factor in responsible investment issues into our investment decisions, we are discussing our stewardship of our Russian assets with our Committee, Investment Managers, Investment Partners and Stakeholders, including LGPS Central Limited.
We have identified that we have 0.15% of the overall Fund invested in Russia.
We have suspended any further investments in Russia and our approach will be to exit from all investments in Russia as soon as markets permit.