Joining the scheme

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Who can join the LGPS?

The LGPS is an excellent pension scheme that forms an important part of employees’ package of benefits. Not everyone has access to the LGPS. The rules about who can join are set out in the Scheme regulations. There are different types of employer, who either must or may provide access to the LGPS for their employees.

Scheduled bodies

Some employers in must provide the LGPS for their eligible employees. They include:

• District councils
• County councils
• Unitary councils
• London boroughs
• Academies

These are known as Scheduled bodies. They are listed in Schedule 2, Part 1 of the LGPS Regulations 2013.

Designated bodies

Some employers can choose which employees are eligible to join the LGPS. They can designate an individual employee or a class of employees as being eligible for LGPS membership. These are known as designated bodies, and they include:

• town councils
• parish councils
• passenger transport executives

Designated bodies are listed in Schedule 2, Part 2 of the LGPS Regulations 2013.

Admission bodies

An admission body is an employer that chooses to participate in the LGPS. It enters into an ‘admission agreement’ with the administering authority.

Like a designated body, an admission body may designate an individual employee or a class of employees for LGPS membership.

A contractor is a transferee admission body if services are transferred from a local authority or other LGPS employer to that employer. Staff that transfer with the contract generally remain eligible for LGPS membership as long as they are working wholly or mainly on the contract that transferred. More rarely, the contractor may offer a pension that is ‘broadly comparable’ to the LGPS to staff after the transfer.

You can read more about the rules that apply to admission bodies in Schedule 2, Part 3 of the LGPS Regulations 2013.

Other bodies

Certain employees are eligible for LGPS membership because they are deemed to be employed by a scheduled body, designated body or admission body. These include certain employees of the governing body of a voluntary school, foundation school, foundation special school, technical institute or similar institution or federated school. You can find a full list of employers in this category in Schedule 2, Part 4 of the LGPS Regulations 2013.

Who can’t join the LGPS?

Some people who work for an LGPS employer are not allowed to join the LGPS. An employee cannot join the LGPS if they are:

• over age 75
• employed by an admission body and a member of another occupational pension scheme in that employment
• eligible to be a member of a different public service pension scheme


For example, schools, academies and Fire and Rescue Authorities are scheduled bodies in the LGPS. However, teaching staff are eligible for membership of the Teachers’ Pension Scheme and operational firefighters are eligible for membership of the Firefighters’ Pension Scheme. Support staff at those establishments would be eligible to be members of the LGPS. There are some exceptions:

• some employees have dual eligibility for the LGPS and National Health Service Pension Scheme
• an employee who is on reserve forces leave is eligible to be a member of the Armed Forces Pension Scheme. However, they can elect to remain in the LGPS instead.

There is no minimum age for LGPS membership. Employees under age 16 who are eligible for LGPS membership should be treated the same way as older employees.

When does an employee join the LGPS?

Contractual enrolment

If an employee is eligible for membership of the LGPS, they join the Scheme:

• from the first day of their employment, or
• from the first date they are eligible for membership, if this is later,

but only if they have a contract of employment for at least three months. This is known as contractual enrolment.

There are two sections in the LGPS – the main section and the 50/50 section. A new member joins the main section of the Scheme unless they elect to join the 50/50 section. Find out more about the Main section and the 50/50 section.

Contracts of less than three months

A person who is eligible for membership of the LGPS does not automatically join the Scheme if they are employed under a contract of employment of less than three months. This will include:

• employees with a fixed term contract for less than three months
• casual employees with no contract

They will join the Scheme if one of the following happens:

• the person opts in to the LGPS – see the section below on Opting in
• they must join the Scheme under Automatic enrolment rules

their employment contract is extended to three months or more. The member joins the LGPS from the first day of the pay period after the contract is extended.

Opting

An LGPS member may choose not to be a member in an employment. They must complete an opt out form and return it to their employer if they wish to leave the Scheme.

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Important

Employers cannot give an LGPS opt out form to an employee. The employee can only get one from the pension fund, which includes the pension fund’s website.

An employee can only make a valid opt out election after the start date of their LGPS membership. The employee cannot opt out before their employment starts, or before they were eligible for Scheme membership, if later.

If an employee has multiple employments, they can opt out in respect of one, some or all of the relevant employments. The opt out form should have space for the member to specify which job it relates to. An opt out election does not extend to a new job with the same employer. If a member who has opted out starts a second job with the same employer, they would need to complete a second opt out form if they do not wish to be an LGPS member in the new post.

What happens after a member opts out depends on how long the employee has been a member of the LGPS in that employment when they opt out. This is based on the date the employer receives a valid opt out form.

Opt out less than three months after joining the LGPS

The person is treated as if they had never been a member in that employment. Any contributions they paid are refunded, with an adjustment for any tax relief. The employer should recover any employer and employee contributions already paid to the pension fund by reducing the next monthly payment.

Opt out three months or more after joining the LGPS

the person stops being an active member:

• from the date they specified in the opt out form that they want their membership to end, or
• if they don’t specify a date, or use a date before they submitted the form, the end of the pay period in which the employer received the opt out form.

See the section on Sharing information to find out what you must tell the administering authority when a member opts out of the LGPS.

Opting in

Not all people who are eligible for membership of the LGPS are members of the Scheme. An eligible employee is not an active member in an employment if they:

• were employed under a contract of employment for less than three months, or
• had opted out of the LGPS in that employment.


These members may opt in to the LGPS at any time by applying to their employer. If they do, they become a member of the LGPS on the first day of the pay period following the date that they apply.

A person is free to opt in and out of the LGPS as many times as they want to.

There are two sections in the LGPS – the main section and the 50/50 section. A member who opts in joins the main section of the Scheme unless they elect to join the 50/50 section. Find out more about the Main section and the 50/50 section.