Police Pension Scheme

Increasing your Pension

You may opt to make added pension payments in order to increase your retirement benefits for a period of service (or your retirement benefits and death benefits for a period of service).

If you choose to exercise this option, you will be able to decide whether the added pension payments are to be made by periodical payments or via a lump sum payment.

You will only be able to exercise the lump sum option if you have been an active member of the 2015 Scheme for a continuous period of at least 12 months and you have been provided with a statement of the amount of added pension. You will be able to exercise the added pension option more than once, but you can only choose to make a lump sum payment for added pension once in any Scheme Year.

The maximum amount of added pension that can be purchased for any Scheme Year is reviewed annually by HM Treasury. For the Scheme year 1 April 2015 to 31 March 2016, the maximum amount of added pension that can be purchased is £6,500. For Scheme Years beginning on or after 1 April 2016, the limit is determined by HM Treasury, but may effectively increase in line with CPI.

Please Note

You may also use the whole or part of a lump sum which would have been payable to you under the Compensation Scheme as a lump sum payment to buy added pension, but you will need to specify this option to your Police Force.

If you decided to make periodical payments for added pension, the Police Force may cancel the added pension option if it appears that the added pension limits will be exceeded if you continue to make those periodical payments.

If you become entitled to payment of a retirement added pension, you may opt to defer its payment. If you decide to do so, you will become a Deferred member in respect of the retirement added pension. You will then be entitled to the payment of the retirement added pension from the date you specify when you claim payment of that pension. You may claim payment of that pension by giving your Police Force at least 1 month’s notice.

The annual rate of your retirement added pension will be calculated in accordance with the Police Pensions Regulations 2015.