Benefits may be drawn at any time between the Minimum Pension Age (currently 55) and Maximum Pension Age 75.

The LSF will write to you prior to your normal retirement date with a retirement quotation. If you would like to consider taking your benefits before your normal retirement date, an adjustment will be applied to your pension to account for the fact that it will probably end up being in payment for longer. You can run an early retirement illustration via the pensions portal or contact a member of the administration team.

Some members pay, or have paid, Additional Voluntary Contributions (AVCs) on a defined contribution basis. If you have AVCs, they build up in an individual ‘pension pot’, invested in line with your instructions in one of the LSF’s AVC investment options. Your AVCs can be taken as part of your tax-free cash lump sum or used to provide additional pension.

Our online system doesn’t currently include details of AVCs, so you should contact the administration team directly if you wish to discuss your AVCs.

Your benefits are subject to revaluation in line with statutory requirements up to normal retirement date or earlier commencement date. Further detail is included on your annual benefit statement and your benefit illustration which can be run via the pensions portal.

When your pension comes into payment for the first time, the LSF will measure its value against the Lifetime Allowance. If the value of your pension exceeds the Lifetime Allowance, you may have to pay an additional tax charge. This will be paid to HMRC by the LSF and will reduce the amount of pension you receive.

If you have applied for some form of Lifetime Allowance protection, you should notify LSF and provide the administration team with a copy of the relevant certificate issued by HMRC, if you haven’t already done so.

You can find out more about Lifetime Allowance here.

The death benefits paid from the Fund will depend on the benefit structure that was chosen by your employer. However, generally speaking, the following benefits are payable:

• If you are an active member there would be a lump sum payable, normally a multiple of your salary. In addition, if you are married at the time of your death, there could be a pension payable to your spouse, and sometimes to any eligible children.
• If you are a deferred member, i.e. you have not yet started to draw your pension, there is a lump sum payable, and in some cases a pension payable to your spouse and/or any eligible children. Your online benefit statement, which is available through the pensions portal, shows the current value of both the lump sum and the spouse’s pension.

Any lump sums payable on death are paid at the discretion of the Trustee and therefore do not form part of an individual’s estate for Inheritance Tax purposes. Although lump sums are payable at the Trustee’s discretion, it may take into account any wishes of the deceased, and therefore it is important to keep your expression of wishes up to date.

You can do this by either:

• logging into the pensions portal; or
• posting or emailing a signed Expression of Wishes Form to the administration team. Go to Get in touch for contact details.