Categories:
Maintained Schools Heads, Business Managers, Administrators

Pension change

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There have been some changes to the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) under the Access and Fairness reforms.

What has changed?

  • Employees must now pay pension contributions during authorised unpaid absences of less than 15 days. Contributions will be based on the pay they would have received, using the normal employee and employer contribution rates.
  • Where an employee chooses to buy back pension lost during an authorised unpaid absence of 15 days or more, the cost will be based on the normal employee and employer contribution rates.

  • Assumed Pensionable Pay (APP) will apply during:

    • unpaid additional adoption leave
    • unpaid additional maternity leave
    • unpaid shared parental leave

    This only applies where the unpaid period starts on or after 1 April 2026. Existing arrangements remain in place where the unpaid period began before this date.

Changes in IBC (Shared Services)

Letters sent to employees taking unpaid leave have been updated to reflect the new regulations.

Letters relating to family-related leave (such as adoption leave) are currently being updated as part of a wider project and will be released later this year. In the meantime, IBC will ensure affected employees receive the correct information.

Important information for July payroll

As these changes took effect from 1 April 2026, IBC has reviewed and corrected cases where employees have taken unpaid leave since that date.

Where required, pension contributions have been adjusted retrospectively and these corrections will appear in July payslips.

  • The average additional pension deduction for affected employees is £8.76
  • 75% of deductions are less than £10

Going forward, pension contributions will be calculated and deducted automatically in line with the updated regulations.

Help and support

These changes do not affect the Teachers’ Pension Scheme.

If an employee notices a reduction in pay on their July payslip and believes it may be linked to these pension changes, they can contact IBC for further information and support.