A career average member can elect to pay higher contributions to earn a higher pension. The normal rate of accrual or growth in pension is based on 1/57th of their earnings for that year.

Members can pay higher contributions so that the growth in their pension each year can be 1/45th, 1/50th and 1/55th of their earnings for that year. Contributions are on a percentage basis.

Example:

Rosanne is a member of the career average scheme with a salary of £30,000 per annum. In the table below, you can see an illustration of the effect of the different accrual rates for Rosanne.

Accrual Rate Pension Earned

Each election lasts for one financial (Scheme) year. An election begins on the 1 April and ends on 31 March of the following year. An election must be made in the Scheme year before the member wants it to take effect. This would ideally be before the end of January to allow us and you time to process the election before 1 April. You'll receive notification via the Employer Portal to advise you to make the deductions. If a member starts a new employment mid-year they can make an election for the remainder of that year, but they must make it within a month of entering service. But please note that if an election made earlier in the Scheme year was with a Local Authority (LA) and wasn’t specific to an establishment, the election will apply to any new employment with the same LA in that Scheme year.

You'll need to make any new members of the Scheme aware that if they wish to elect for faster accrual, they must make an election when they take up the post.