If you have defined benefits in the LSF, your retirement benefit within the LSF will be based on your service and salary while an active member of the Fund. If you have left service your deferred pension may have increased. By logging into the secure pensions portal you will be able to obtain a current value of your pension benefit and an estimate of what it might be when you choose to retire.

Under current tax rules, you may exchange part of your pension for a cash lump sum, which is currently tax free. If you choose this option, your pension at retirement would be reduced.

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 LSF Pensions Administration directly if you wish to discuss your AVCs.

Some pensions in payment may receive annual increases, with various elements receiving different levels of increase, depending on the LSF Rules and pensions legislation in force at the time. However, some pensions in payment receive no annual increase.

LSF Pensions Administration deducts income tax directly from your monthly pension and pays it to HMRC. If you think you are paying the wrong amount of tax you need to contact HMRC direct, by getting in touch with the relevant tax office.

When your pension comes into payment for the first time, LSF Pensions Administration 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. Find out more about the Lifetime Allowance.

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

The death benefits paid from the Fund will depend on the benefit structure that was chosen by your employer – please see your online benefit statement for details of death benefits. However, generally speaking, the following benefits are payable to members with defined benefits:

• 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 would usually 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 secure pensions portal, shows the current value of both the lump sum and the spouse’s pension.

• If you die after retirement, and within five years of your retirement date, a lump sum in respect of the balance of the five-year guarantee period would usually be payable. Your spouse and eligible children may also receive a pension. The lump sum is calculated using the difference between your pension and any contingent pension that might be payable. Any unpaid pension for the month of death would also be payable.

Any lump sums payable on death are paid to a beneficiary or beneficiaries chosen 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, the Trustee may take into account any wishes of the deceased, and therefore it is important to keep your Expression of Wishes Form up to date.