Increase your pension
If you are a member of the Local Government Pension Scheme, you can choose to make additional contributions from your salary now to increase the pension you receive in the future. There are several ways you can do this, including:
- additional voluntary contributions
- shared cost additional voluntary contributions
In most cases, you will be better off financially using the shared cost additional voluntary contribution scheme. This will depend on your individual circumstances.
For more information, refer to the Additional voluntary contributions FAQs (PDF, 258KB).
Additional voluntary contributions
Additional voluntary contributions (sometimes called AVCs) are taken from your net pay, that is, the amount of money you receive after income tax, national insurance, and other contributions have been deducted.
As you get tax relief on your voluntary pension contribution, you pay less income tax.
Shared cost additional voluntary contributions
With shared cost additional voluntary contributions (or shared cost AVCs), your contribution is taken from your gross pay, that is, your full monthly pay before deductions. Cheshire East Council then pays this amount into your AVC fund on your behalf. You also pay a small fixed amount (£1) directly into the AVC fund.
By reducing your gross pay, you pay less income tax and less national insurance.
As this is a salary sacrifice scheme, we are not allowed, by law, to reduce your pay to below the National Minimum Wage. Therefore, membership of another scheme (cycle to work, childcare vouchers, purchase of annual leave) may affect your ability to take advantage of this scheme. Similarly, joining this scheme may affect your ability to take advantage of any other salary sacrifice scheme.
Example figures: AVC vs shared cost AVC
The table below illustrates example figures for employee 'Joe' on a salary of £30,000.
Mileage between main corporate office buildings
| | Without AVC | With standard AVC | With shared cost AVC |
|---|
Gross monthly payment
(before main scheme contributions) |
£2,500 |
£2,500 |
£2,251 |
|---|
| Joe's LGPS contribution |
£162.50 |
£162.50 |
£162.50 |
|---|
| Joe's AVC contribution |
£0 |
£250 |
£1 |
|---|
| Employer's AVC contribution |
£0 |
N/A |
£249 |
|---|
| Total AVC contribution |
N/A |
£250 |
£250 |
|---|
| Joe's income tax |
£258 |
£208 |
£208 |
|---|
| Joe's national insurance |
£116.16 |
£116.16 |
£96.24 |
|---|
| Joe's monthly pay after tax |
£1,963.34 |
£1,763.34 |
£1,783.26 |
|---|
How to get started
Standard additional voluntary contributions (AVCs)
Find out more about standard AVCs and complete the form on the Cheshire Pension Fund website.
Shared cost additional voluntary contributions
My Money Matters are responsible for managing and administering this benefit for the council.
- Register on the my money matters website.
- Log in and check out the services available to you.
- If you do not currently have an AVC plan, select ‘New shared cost AVC scheme application’.
- If you currently pay standard AVCs, select ‘Convert to shared cost AVCs’.
Complete the form with the information required and submit your application by clicking the ‘Submit’ button. My Money Matters will process your application and notify you when this has been completed.
Contact
For questions or support, contact My Money Matters: