AVCs
Civil partner
Contracted out
Deferred benefits
Eligible dependant children
Final pay
Gainful employment
Husband or wife
Membership
Nominated cohabiting partner
Normal retirement age
Part time
Pay
State pension age
AVCs
Short for Additional Voluntary Contributions. One of the ways of increasing your benefits.
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Civil partner
This means a person of the same sex who you have formed a civil partnership with.
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Contracted out
In a contracted out fund such as ours, members are taken out of the State Second Pension (S2P), so both the members and the employers pay less in National Insurance.
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Deferred benefits
Your benefits are worked out when you leave the fund, based on the amount of membership you have built up and your pay when you leave, in the same way as for retirement.
They are then held in the fund where they increase in value every year in line with the cost of living, until they are put into payment.
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Eligible dependant children
This includes your own children, adopted children, and certain other children who depend on you financially. They must normally be under 17, but can be as old as 23 if they carry on in full time education. It can even cover some adult children who cannot work because of a disability.
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Final pay
Normally this means the pensionable pay you earn in your final year before leaving or retiring. Any pay arrears that relate to a previous year are excluded. Earlier years can sometimes be used if the final year is not the highest paid.
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Gainful employment
Gainful employment is defined in the scheme rules as any type of paid work, for at least 30 hours a week over a period of at least 12 months.
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Husband or wife
This means your legally married husband or wife.
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Membership
Membership is used to work out your benefits and is based on how long you have been a member of the fund, plus any extra membership, for example any you transfer in from another pension scheme.
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Nominated cohabiting partner
Someone you've lived with for at least two years and have registered with us for survivor's benefits by completing our cohabiting partner nomination form. Details of this are in our nominating a cohabiting partner notes.
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Normal retirement age
The normal retirement age is 65. But you can still retire and draw your benefits from 60, and even before then, for example if your employer retires you on ill health.
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Part time
You are part time if you work anything less than the number of hours your employer classes as standard full time hours.
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Pay
Pay means your pay before deductions for tax and National Insurance, it includes basic pay, plus some extras such as bonus and shift allowances, but not things like voluntary overtime, payments made to achieve equal pay (single status) or mileage.
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State pension age
The age you can draw your state pension. Traditionally this is 65 for men and 60 for women, although it is now later for many women.
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