What happens if I am granted unpaid leave of absence?

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If you are granted unpaid leave of absence, including jury service, the period will not count for pension purposes unless you elect to pay Additional Pension Contributions (APCs) to purchase the amount of pension 'lost' during that period of absence.

The amount of pension lost is calculated as the appropriate fraction of your lost pensionable pay for that period of absence (i.e. 1/49th of your lost pensionable pay if you were in the main section of the Scheme or 1/98th if you were in the 50/50 section).

If you wish to purchase the amount of lost pension and make the election within 30 days of returning to work (or such longer period as your employer allows) then the cost of the APC is split between you and your employer. You will pay one-third of the cost and your employer will pay the rest. This is known as a Shared Cost Additional Pension Contributions (SCAPC). You can pay these additional contributions in a one-off lump sum or through regular payments from your wages.

The maximum period of absence you can elect to buy back by a SCAPC is a period of 3 years.

If you have membership of the LGPS before 1 April 2014 you will have built up benefits in the final salary scheme.

If you choose to pay for the lost pension in the scheme the amount you pay will go towards covering the protections associated with the pre-1 April 2014 membership. To find out more, please see the section If you joined the LGPS before 1 April 2014.