A workplace pension is a way of saving for your retirement. You pay a percentage of your salary into your pension and Essex County Council pays a significant contribution as well.
You will have been contractually enrolled into one of three workplace pension schemes depending on the job you do:
If you have a question about your enrolment or your contributions, contact the Service Centre on 03330 135 888 or via the Assyst portal.
If you’re a member of the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) and want to discuss your pension, please contact Essex Pension Fund (EPF) on 03330 138 384 or by email pensionenquiries@essex.gov.uk.
Life cover
Your pension scheme may include death in service life cover payable to your family if you die before taking your pension.
Automatic enrolment and re-enrolment
You'll be enrolled on the pension scheme if you:
- are aged between 22 and state pension age
- earn more than £10,000 a year
- work in the UK
Automatic re-enrolment takes place every three years and all employees who are not in a workplace pension scheme at that point and who meet the above criteria will be automatically re-enrolled into the appropriate scheme. You will be enrolled even if you've previously opted out. The next re-enrolment date is 1 January 2025.
Every time an employee is re-enrolled they can opt-out, but will be re-enrolled again at the next re-enrolment date if they meet the above criteria.
Leaving the council if you are over 55
Your manager will need to complete an EPF1a form (DOC,659KB) and return it to the Essex Pension Fund if you are leaving the council and meet all these conditions:
- you are a member of the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS)
- you are aged over 55 or over (do not use this form if you are under 55 years)
- you are leaving under normal resignation, redundancy, flexible retirement, or in any case of ill health retirement
Taking redundancy
If you are aged 55 or over and a member of a workplace pension, retirement due to redundancy may affect you. Please follow the appropriate link to discover what your options are:
Retirement
If you're thinking of retiring in the near future, visit your scheme's website for further information.
Taking your pension at retirement
For most scheme members ‘retirement’ - drawing your LGPS pension - is at a time of your own choosing. The scheme does not have a ‘default’ retirement age, but if you are made redundant and are aged 55 or over, you will receive your pension benefits automatically from the scheme. We cannot pay a LGPS pension until a member has left employment.
The following is a broad guide to the information exchange between your employer, Essex Pension Fund and yourself leading to the pension payment. Everyone is different and the aim of this information is to give a general indication of steps taken.
The steps are:
- Once Essex Pension Fund receives retirement notification from your employer of your date of retirement and reason for retiring, your case will be allocated to a pension consultant for action. Retirements are set as high priority.
- Essex Pension Fund will write to you to enable your pension benefits to be released. There are various options available and this will be discussed with you by an experienced pension consultant. It is important to keep your address details up to date to allow not only your employer but that of your pension fund provider to communicate directly with you. Please update both My Oracle and the Essex Pension Fund direct.
- Essex Payroll Services (or your independent payroll provider) will in the meantime run the final payroll, any salary due will be paid in the month you leave. Once this happens your actual pensionable pay and ‘final pay’ details will be sent to the Essex Pension Fund. This will allow them to calculate your final pension benefits.
- Essex Pension Fund pay all pension payments on the last working day of every month.