On Thursday 14 November, we held our 2024 Employers Meeting. This year’s meeting was presented by representatives from our actuary, Mercer, who provided information to employers on important topics…

Great news! Our new-look member portal is live and ready for you to explore. The portal has had some exciting upgrades: Simpler registration and navigation: Getting started and moving around the…

The papers and agenda for the Pensions Board meeting, being held 10am at Shirehall on 8 November have now been published. The purpose of the Board, which meets regularly throughout the year, is to as…

Pauline Padden, a critical care nurse from Merseyside, was one of 245 victims defrauded in a £13.5 million scam that saw fraudsters Alan Barratt and Susan Dalton put behind bars for their criminal act…

We are pleased to announce that the 2024 Autumn edition of our retired member's newsletter, InTouch, is now available with a brand new look. In the latest issue, we introduce the updated ‘My Pension…

Shropshire County Pension Fund agreed its latest Climate Change Strategy at Pensions Committee on 13 September 2024. The strategy explains the fund’s approach to addressing the risks and opportunities…

The LGA have updated their online tools and calculators to help members better understand how their pension work, especially regarding lump sums. Lump sum calculator Have you ever wondered about…

We’re all getting older, so it’s time to think about the most important pot for your future self, your pension pot. The Pension Attention campaign is a coordinated annual industry campaign, running…

The papers and agenda for the Pensions Committee meeting, being held at Shirehall on 13 September at 10am have now been published. The Pensions Committee is responsible for the overall management of…

Your 2024 active annual benefit statement is ready. Your statement shows the value of your Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) pension benefits as of 31st March 2024, including your final salary…

Your 2024 deferred annual benefit statement is ready. Your statement shows the value of your Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) pension benefits as of 8 April 2024 and includes any pensions incre…

The UK government launched "Check your State Pension forecast" on 29 April 2024. This new digital service helps individuals fill gaps in their National Insurance (NI) records, potentially increasing t…

If you’ve been receiving your pension from us for a while, you’ll already know that your P60 and payslips are available to view securely online. If you’re newly retired, you may want to sign up to ‘My…

We're pleased to announce that we've published the Spring 2024 edition of our retired member's InTouch newsletter. Some of the topics in the latest issue include: Pensions increase Your P60 expla…

The Shropshire County Fund Business Plan for 2024-2026 has been approved by the Pension Committee on March 15 2024. In the plan, key priorities for “business as usual” and work on new and ongoing pro…

Our 2022/2023 Annual Report is now available. The Annual Report documents the important issues affecting the fund over the previous financial year, together with full details about our financial and a…

The LGPS have released the 2024/2025 employee contribution bands for England and Wales, which will be effective from 1st April 2024. The new bands have been calculated by increasing the 2023/24 contr…

Our 2022/2023 Annual Report is now available. The Annual Report documents the important issues affecting the fund over the previous financial year, together with full details about our financial and a…

How can I know my pension is safe? We understand that members may be concerned about the current financial position of local authorities. Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) members can be sure th…

The Government has recently reviewed the early retirement factors. The new factors are lower which means the reduction to your pension is less. The new factors apply to retirements from 3 July 2023. …

During this difficult economic period, pension savers are facing heightened financial pressures. As a membership body for pension schemes, the PLSA has developed a resource, 'Supporting Savers Thro…

One in four savers could be at risk of a pension scam, recent analysis has found. A HelpandAdvice.co.uk study has revealed that a quarter of the 1,562 respondents of their Pension Scam Assessment had…

The amount your employer contributes to your pension will have changed recently as a result of the Valuation, which takes place once every three years.  The valuation is required under Regulation 62…

Changes to pensions tax limits were announced in the Chancellor’s Spring budget on 15 March 2023. They affect the two main allowances for pension savings – a lifetime allowance and an annual allowanc…

The primary objective of the fund is to provide pension for scheme members and their dependents, on a defined benefits basis. These pages contain information on the role of the fund's investments in m…

Our actuary reviews and amends employer contribution rates every three years. When the actuarial valuation has been completed, the actuary prepares a valuation report. This is available to view now.  …

Below are the employee contribution bands effective from 1 April 2023. These are calculated by increasing the 2022/23 employee contribution bands by the September 2022 CPI figure of 10.1 per cent and…

Did you know the LGPS offers members the flexibility to pay half their normal contribution rate and build up half their normal pension? This is called the 50/50 section of the LGPS and can be a really…

We’ve recently published our updated Brief Scheme Guide in line with changes from the Local Government Association (LGA). You can find the latest version under Related Documents. The most significant…

We understand that because of various reasons such as disruption to household income following the pandemic and rising energy bills, some of our members may be thinking about opting out of the scheme.…

LGPS Central have announced the successful launch of its £1 billion Global Sustainable Equities Active Fund with four local authority Partners investing at launch. The fund consists of three themed…

Shropshire County Pension Fund has now self-certified itself as meeting the standards of the Pensions Regulator’s pledge to combat pension scams. Pension scams are on the rise, with many criminals se…

At the Shropshire County Pension Fund (“the Fund”) Committee meeting on Monday 17 January 2022 Pension Committee Members agreed that the fund would target net zero emissions by 2050 or sooner. Counci…

‘Guaranteed minimum pension (GMP) equalisation’ is about a court ruling from October 2018, that pension schemes need to ‘equalise’ the GMP benefits of men and women. These are currently linked to the…

Shropshire County Pension Fund has signed up to the Pensions Regulator’s pledge to combat pension scams. Pension scams are on the rise, with many criminals seeking to take advantage of the uncertai…

We take responsible investment very seriously. We know this is something our members want to know more about, and we wanted to let you know where you can find more information about what the fund’s do…

We have been contacted by Prudential who've let us know that members who pay Additional Voluntary Contributions (AVCs) might be experiencing some delays in the processing of investments, claims and re…

On 12 February 2021, HM Treasury [HMT] published the Exit Payment Cap Directions 2021 which disapply regulations 3, 9 and 12 of the Restriction of Public Sector Exit Payment Regulations 2020 with imme…

In a surprising development on Friday 12th February 2021 , the government issued the Exit Payment Cap Directions 2021 which disapply parts of the Restriction of Public Sector Exit Payments Regulations…

Shropshire County Pension Fund has become one of the first in the country to report on the carbon footprint of its £2 billion investment portfolio. Shropshire County Pension Fund has published its Cli…

The fund will soon be looking for a new scheme member and employer representatives to sit on the Pensions Board and also increasing how often meetings take place. The role of the Pension Board is to h…

Background On 10 April 2019, HM Treasury (HMT) opened a consultation on draft regulations, directions and guidance to bring in a £95k exit payment cap on Public Sector Exit Payments. This included pr…

Proposed changes to the LGPS regulations have been announced. These changes affect the automatic entitlement to unreduced pension benefits for members over age 55 who leave the scheme because of redun…

The Pensions Regulator (TPR) has relaunched their ScamSmart campaign to make pension scheme members more aware of scams during the Covid-19 pandemic. It’s important that you don’t make any hasty decis…

We know that some of our scheme members might be thinking about transferring their pension benefits due to the current financial uncertainty around investments. If this applies to you, or you’re think…

At Shropshire County Pension Fund we value your feedback and use this to improve the services we provide. Please take a moment to fill in our feedback form. The link can be found under Related L…

Last year the Government confirmed that the McCloud judgement applies to all public service pension schemes. You can read more on our previous newspost. We must remind you that you don’t need to make…

We can now confirm that the 2020 Pensions Increase will be 1.7%. This increase is worked out in line with September 2019’s consumer price index (CPI). The Shropshire County Pension Fund, like all pub…

The Shropshire County Pension Fund annual meeting took place on 28th November 2019 in the Council Chamber at the Shirehall. You can now watch the video of the meeting on the annual meeting web page.…

The ‘Pensions Made Simple’ member videos created in collaboration with the Local Government Association, are now available to view on our website. There are seven short videos in total which cover a…

Back in January, the Scheme Advisory Board (SAB) paused the cost management process due to uncertainty surrounding an on-going court case, known as the McCloud and Sergeant case.  The case concerns t…

Prudential have released some important information regarding their UK property fund. Members who are affected by these updates will be contacted by Prudential directly.  You can find more informatio…

If you opt out or join the 50/50 section of the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS), your employer must automatically re-enrol you back into the main section of the scheme around every three years.…

The LGPS (Miscellaneous Amendment) Regulations 2018 came into force on 10 January 2019. The main changes resulting from these amendment regulations are: A technical amendment now allows early acce…

A long-awaited ban on pensions cold calling came into force on Wednesday 9th January 2019. The ban is now a law under the Electronic Communications (Amendments) (No.2) Regulations 2018. Companies brea…