Final salary scheme

If you’ve benefits in the final salary scheme, these benefits are protected and will remain in the final salary scheme. They’ll be increased in line with inflation.

Career average scheme

If you’ve earned benefits in the career average scheme, they’ll continue to be index linked but at a lower rate than when you’re in service.

If you return to pensionable service after a break of less than five years, the benefits you earned before your break will be revised and index linked as though you had never been out of service. Those benefits and any future ones will continue to be index linked at the higher in-service rate, as long as you remain in service.

If you return to pensionable service after a break of more than five years, the benefits you earned before your break will continue to be index linked at the lower rate after your return to service. Any future benefits you earn will be index linked at the higher in service rate as long as you remain in service.

Benefit Statement – keeping track

You can access your Benefit Statement at any time to see the estimated value of your benefits if taken at Normal Pension Age. It’s worth reading through this to check it matches your expectations and to check that the service and salary information we hold is accurate. You’ll find your Benefit Statement in My Pension Online.

It’s important to check your service history on a regular basis. This is because we use your service information to calculate your retirement benefits. Any errors or missing service* found during the application process could delay your retirement benefits being paid. 

The earlier your find any errors the simpler it is to correct them (making the retirement process simpler, however far in the future it may be).

If you believe you have missing service, the first thing to do is to contact the relevant employer from that period and ask them to update your record. Find out more about what do if you have missing service with our FAQs.

*Missing service doesn’t necessarily mean any contribution payments have been missed, simply that some details haven’t been provided correctly.