How to complete a Leaver Form

• If the employee is leaving or retiring from more than one job we will need a form for each job.
• A ‘payment in lieu of notice’ is not pensionable under the LGPS regulations. Leaving date is the date of the last normal payment through the payroll system.
• Check you are providing the most up to date address for the employee as we will use this address to notify them of their pension benefits.

• Select one reason, this must be accurate as it affects the pension benefits the employee is entitled to receive.
• some reasons for leaving require additional information to be provided:

Death in service – please provide next of kin information.

Dismissal ‘other’ – if the reason for dismissal is ‘other’ and the employee pension benefits are to be withheld under the employer discretions you need to provide manager’s name and contact details.

Dismissal ‘capability-ill health application in progress’ – it is possible the member may have left employment before the ill health application is completed. In these cases you should select the ill health application in progress box. This will prevent incorrect benefits from being paid.

Employer consent early retirement (switching on rule of 85 and or waiving reductions) – Further information.

Flexible retirement – Further information.

Member opted out after 3 months membership – Further information.

Redundancy/Efficiency over age 55 – Further information.

Ill health – Further information.

• Current financial year – pension contributions the employee has paid from 1 April to the date of leaving.
• Previous financial year – pension contributions the employee has paid from 1 April to 31 March of the year prior to leaving.

For an employee who has been in the main and 50/50 section then the contributions should be split, and the amount entered in the correct box. Any additional contributions should be shown in the Additional box. For Additional Voluntary Contributions (AVCs) the date of the final payment, the final amount, and the total amount of AVCs paid since 1 April will need to be provided.

This section relates to the 2008 definition of pensionable pay which includes contractual overtime and excludes non-contractual overtime. This pay is used to calculate the pension the employee built up in the scheme before 1 April 2014. We still need this pay even if their current employment started after this date as they may have previous Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) membership.

Contractual weekly hours

• Current financial year – contractual weekly hours the employee has worked from 1 April to the date of leaving.
• Previous financial year – contractual weekly hours if the employee has worked from 1 April to 31 March of the financial year before leaving.
• Ill health retirement – where the Independent Registered Medical Practitioner has certified that the employee was working reduced contractual hours because of the condition that caused or contributed to the ill health retirement, please provide the hours the employee would have worked if the reduction in hours had not taken place.
• To calculate hours for variable/relief/supply staff add together the total hours worked in the period and divide by the number of weeks to obtain an average hours per week.

Contractual weeks

• 52 weeks unless the employee is working term time only.
• Term time employees – we need to know the contractual weeks for which they are paid including paid holiday entitlement e.g. 40 weeks plus 4 weeks annual leave = 44 weeks.

Pay period used to calculate final pay

• The employees final 365 days of pay i.e. date of leaving is the 30 April, pay period = 1 May to 30 April.
• For an employee with less than 365 days in that employment their start date will be the ‘From’ date.

Actual final pensionable pay

• The pensionable pay the employee has actually received in the last 365 days.
• For part time employees the part time pensionable pay.
• Term time employees the pensionable pay they received for the contractual weeks worked.
• Any pensionable extras paid in the last 365 days should be included in this figure.

For an employee who has less than 365 days of pay in the employment due to absences you may need to increase the pay figure. It is important you read the information on absences.

Whole time equivalent (WTE) final pensionable pay

• Final salary benefits are always calculated using the whole time equivalent pensionable pay figure.
• For a part time employee, the actual pay would need to be uprated to reflect what they would have earned had they been full time in that post for the relevant period of 365 days.
• If an employee is term time only the whole time equivalent should only be for the number of weeks worked. The pay figure should not be uprated to 52 weeks.
• The pay figure should include any pensionable extras earned in the final 365 days.
• Pensionable extras should only be included as an actual value so should be added after the pay has been uprated for a part time member.
• To calculate whole time equivalent for variable/relief/supply staff use the hourly rate of pay multiplied by standard full time equivalent hours (i.e. 37 hours per week) multiplied by the number of weeks worked per year.

Contractual reduction in pay during the last 10 years

• For an employee who has suffered a contractual reduction in pay within their last 10 years of membership the scheme regulations permit the use of a previous best pay for the calculation of final salary benefits.
• If ‘yes’ is selected the pensions team will contact you for further pay information.

Highest whole time equivalent pensionable pay in the last 3 years

• For an employee where the whole time equivalent pensionable pay in the last 365 days is not the highest pay in the last 3 years the scheme regulations permit the use of either of the last 2 years pay figures.
• If you select ‘no’ then please provide the whole time equivalent pay for the last 2 years. For example for an employee with a date of leaving of 31 August 2024 you would need to also provide the pay figures from 1 September 2022 to 31 August 2023 and 1 September 2021 to 31 August 2022.

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This section relates to the 2014 definition of pensionable pay which includes non-contractual overtime.

Scheme Section at date of leaving – Select Main or 50/50 to confirm which section of the scheme the member was paying into at the date of leaving.

Main Section actual/assumed pensionable pay – This section only needs to be completed if the member has had a period of main scheme membership during the final 2 years.

• The current financial year is the period from 1 April to the date of leaving.
• The previous financial year relates to the period to the previous 31 March from either the 1 April or for an employee with less than 365 days in that employment their start date will be the ‘From’ date.
• Actual/assumed pensionable pay is the amount the employee has actually earned and paid pension contributions on in the relevant period. If there has been any absence on reduced pay then assumed pensionable pay must be calculated for the reduced pay period and added to the actual pensionable pay. If the absence has been on nil pay then different rules apply depending on the reason for absence.
• Assumed pensionable pay is calculated as the average of the employee’s pensionable pay for the 3 months (or 12 weeks if weekly paid) before the reduced or nil pay period began. If the pay received in the 3 months is materially lower than the normal level of pay over the last 12 months the employer has discretion to determine a pay figure that represents the normal level of pay.

50/50 Section actual/assumed pensionable pay – This section only needs to be completed if the member has had a period of 50/50 scheme membership during the final 2 years.

• The current financial year is the period from 1 April to the date of leaving or from the date the employee moved to the 50/50 section.
• The previous financial year relates to the period to the previous 31 March from either the 1 April or if the member started part way through that year their start date or the date they moved to the 50/50 section.
• Actual/assumed pensionable pay is the amount the employee has actually earned and paid pension contributions on in the relevant period. If there has been any absence on reduced pay then Assumed pensionable pay must be calculated for the reduced pay period and added to the actual pensionable pay. If the absence has been on nil pay then different rules apply depending on the reason for absence.
• Assumed pensionable pay is calculated as the average of the employee’s pensionable pay for the 3 months (or 12 weeks if weekly paid) before the reduced or nil pay period began. If the pay received in the 3 months is materially lower than the normal level of pay over the last 12 months the employer has discretion to determine a pay figure that represents the normal level of pay.

Annual assumed pensionable pay

• This will need to be provided if the member has been awarded ill health retirement or for death in service cases. It is calculated as the average of the pensionable pay received for the 12 weeks (or 3 months if monthly paid) before the pay period in which reduced or nil pay began.
• In calculating the average, any reduction due to authorised leave of absence or due to a trade dispute is ignored. If the pay received in the 12 weeks (or 3 months if monthly paid) is materially lower than the pay that would normally be paid, the employer has discretion to use a higher pay in the calculation.
• The employer must have regard to the pensionable pay earned over the previous 12 months when determining what the normal level of pensionable pay is.
• The resulting figure is then grossed up to an annual figure.
• If the reason for leaving is ill health early retirement and the Independent Registered Medical Practitioner has certified that the member was working reduced contractual hours as a result of the condition that caused or contributed to the ill health retirement, the APP should be calculated on the pay the member would have received if they had not been working reduced contractual hours.

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Please input the name and contact details of the person completing the form. The form should only be completed by a person on the authorised signature list.