Pension payment dates
Your pension will be paid on the 28th of each month. If the 28th falls on a weekend your pension will be paid on the previous working day. If you were previously a member of the J O Grant & Taylor (London) Limited Staff Pension Scheme, your pension is paid on the same date each month depending on your retirement date. If that date falls on a weekend or bank holiday, it will be paid on the closest week day.
Your pension will be taxed in the same way as your earnings.
Unless you were previously a member of the J O Grant & Taylor (London) Limited Staff Pension Scheme, you can view your payslip online. If you were previously a member of the J O Grant & Taylor (London) Limited Staff Pension Scheme, you should contact the Scheme Administrator for information.
Pension increases
To protect your pension against inflation and the cost of living, the Trustee increases your pension on 1 April each year in line with the relevant price index. If you were previously a member of the J O Grant & Taylor (London) Limited Staff Pension Scheme, your pension is increased on the anniversary of the date that you started to receive your pension.
Future Changes to the Retail Prices Index
For some members of Vodafone Group Pension Scheme (VGPS) , pensions in payment, in excess of Guaranteed Minimum Pension (GMP)*, increase in line with the Retail Prices Index (RPI). In some cases, revaluation increases that apply before retirement are also calculated in reference to the RPI. This is set out in the Scheme Rules (different minimum and maximum increase limits may apply depending on what section of the Scheme you’re in and when you joined) .
You may have heard that the UK Government has announced plans to make changes to the RPI. On 11 March 2020, the UK Statistics Authority (UKSA) and HM Treasury launched a consultation which looked at the option of reforming the RPI formula to align it with the inflation calculation for the Consumer Price Index including an allowance for housing (CPIH).
On 25 November 2020, the Government announced that the outcome of this consultation was that RPI would be calculated in a manner aligned with the calculation of CPIH from 2030.
What does this mean for me?
Depending on which section of the Scheme you're in and when you joined, the Scheme Rules may require increases to your benefits (before and/or after retirement) to be calculated in reference to RPI (subject to certain minimum and maximum levels).
The Trustee of the Scheme has a legal duty to ensure that benefits are paid in line with the Scheme Rules. This means that, where the Scheme Rules relating to your benefits refer to RPI-linked increases, any changes to the way in which RPI is calculated will automatically flow through to the increases you receive.
The Bank of England has suggested that increases in CPIH would likely be around 1% per annum lower than the current RPI. Pension benefits that are increased in line with RPI are therefore expected to increase at a potentially lower rate from 2030. If increases to your benefits are linked to RPI (this will depend on what section of the Scheme you’re in and when you joined), the increases to your pension from 2030 onwards may be lower than they would have been if the formula for calculating RPI had not been updated.
If you would like more information about how this change may impact you, please contact us.
Impact on the Scheme’s funding level
The planned changes to RPI are not expected to impact the Scheme's funding level. This is because, whilst the change to RPI may reduce the value of the Scheme’s liabilities, there is expected to be a similar impact on the value of the Scheme assets, which are invested broadly to match movements in the liabilities.
*About GMP
If you were previously a member of the J O Grant & Taylor (London) Limited Staff Pension Scheme, you do not have a GMP. GMP is the part of your pension that reflects the extra benefit you would have received as part of your State Pension had the Scheme not been contracted out of the State Second Pension. The underlying principle for pension schemes that contracted out is that they must provide members with a minimum level of pension at ‘GMP age’ (age 60 for women and 65 for men) that corresponds to the pension members would have earned under the State Pension Scheme if the schemes had not been contracted out.
If you die in retirement
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Cash lump sum
If you die within five years of retiring, a lump sum will be paid equal to the unpaid balance of five years’ pension payments (excluding inflation increases) to your beneficiaries at the discretion of the Trustee.
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Spouse or dependant pension
Your spouse or other financial dependant may receive a pension worth around half of your anticipated pension (ignoring any lump sum you have already taken).
Providing for your retirement
The Trustee is responsible for ensuring it has enough money to continue to provide your pension. To do this it invests the Scheme’s assets in a range of different investment vehicles in order to minimise risk, whilst maximising return. Some of these investments are designed to match the risks borne by the Scheme for example, interest rates and inflation. The Scheme also invests in insurance policies called ‘buy ins’ to provide for pensioner benefits payable under the Scheme. The Trustee Directors have a number of these contracts and as part of these agreements share pensioner data with third parties. You can find more information about how data is handled in the Scheme’s privacy policy. The document library contains further information about how third parties handle your data. For more information about how the Scheme is funded refer to the funding update also available in the document library.
If your address or bank details change
If you move house or change your bank details it is important to let us know so that we can make sure you continue to receive important messages about your pension and that your pension payments are made on time.
Updating your details is straightforward, just contact the Scheme Administrator.