Welcome to the 2025 edition of the City and County of Swansea Pension Fund newsletter, which has been produced for all members receiving a pension from the City and County of Swansea Pension Fund. 

I hope that you find it informative, however should you have any comment, please do not hesitate to contact the Pension Section at the address or email at the end of this newsletter.

Pension Increase 2025

The pension increase this year will be 1.7% and will take effect from 7 April 2025.  Your LGPS pension is reviewed each April and the amount of Pension Increase is based on a Consumer Price Index as specified by the Government. This means that for your April pension, you will have 6 days at your old rate and 24 days at the new rate.  The new full monthly amount will start from May 2025.

Please note, if your pension payments started after 23 April 2024 you will usually only receive a partial increase this April as follows:

Period during which pension began	Amount of increase %
24/04/2024 – 23/05/2024	1.56
24/05/2024 – 23/06/2024	1.42
24/06/2024 – 23/07/2024	1.27
24/07/2024 – 23/08/2024	1.13
24/08/2024 – 23/09/2024	0.99
24/09/2024 – 23/10/2024	0.85
24/10/2024 – 23/11/2024	0.71
24/11/2024 – 23/12/2023	0.57
24/12/2024 – 23/01/2025	0.42
24/01/2025 – 23/02/2025	0.28
24/02/2025 – 23/03/2025	0.14

*please note: if your pension includes Guaranteed Minimum Pension (GMP) your percentage increase may be different to what is listed due to part of your increase being paid by the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) and part of your increase being paid by the City & County of Swansea Pension Fund

My Pension Online

My Pension Online is our online portal, which will allow you to view and amend basic details on your record such as your postal address, your death grant nominees and view your annual pension.  If you would like to register for ‘My Pension Online’, please visit the website: https://mypensions.swansea.gov.uk/

Unfortunately, if you are in receipt of an LGPS pension due to early retirement from the Teacher’s Scheme, you are not able to use this portal.

Pension Payment Dates 2025-26

Your pension is paid on the last banking day of each calendar month. The payment dates for the next year are listed below:

• 30 April 2025
• 30 May 2025
• 30 June 2025
• 31 July 2025
• 29 August 2025
• 30 September 2025
• 31 October 2025
• 28 November 2025
• 31 December 2025
• 30 January 2026
• 27 February 2026
• 31 March 2026

McCloud Remedy – Free informational webinar

This webinar is designed to provide Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) members with an overview of the age discrimination remedy, commonly known as the McCloud remedy.

The webinars are delivered by Affinity Connect, a financial wellbeing and retirement specialist in the public sector, part of the Wealth at Work group.

Aimed at

Active (currently paying into the LGPS), Deferred (who are no longer paying into the LGPS) and Pensioner members who are affected by the age discrimination ruling.

It’s likely that you’re protected by the remedy if:

• you joined the LGPS or another public service pension scheme before 1 April 2012, and
• you had pensionable service between 1 April 2014 and 31 March 2022 (the remedy period), and
• you were under age 65 for part or the whole of the remedy period, and
• you have not had a disqualifying gap – a gap of more than five years that ended after 31 March 2012 when you were not paying into the LGPS or any other public service pension scheme.

Book Online at www.lgpsmember.org/mccloud-remedy/mccloud-webinars

Moving House

Please notify the Pension Section if you have a change of address, please do not rely on the sharing of this information between Council Departments as this is deemed a breach of your personal data. Any returned mail will trigger a suspension of your pension payments, until the address is updated. You can change your details using our online portal, sending us an email, or writing to us. We cannot take a change of address over the telephone.

Thinking of moving abroad?

If you are planning on moving abroad you can pay your LGPS pension into an overseas bank account through Western Union. You will receive preferential exchange rates and the facility is free of charge. You will also be required to complete an annual continued eligibility check. The process is straightforward and helps us ensure that your member status has not changed and to alleviate any potential fraud.

Overpayment of pension payments

When a loved one passes away it is a very stressful and upsetting time and sometimes things get overlooked. In the event of your death, it is very important that the Pension Section is notified as soon as possible so that your pension in payment can be stopped to avoid any unnecessary overpayment. The person responsible for dealing with your affairs can contact the Pension Section on (01792) 636655 to report your death or use the Tell Us Once service when the death is registered, quoting your National Insurance number, and indicating that there is a LGPS pension in payment.

Dependent Benefits

As a pensioner member a lump sum death grant and survivor pension benefits may become payable upon your death, this depends on the date that you started to receive your pension benefits and for how long you have been receiving the payments. Please refer to our website for confirmation of survivor eligibility.

Survivor Pension eligibility:

• Opposite or same sex spouse – marriage certificate required for verification
• Opposite or same sex civil partner – civil partnership certificate required for verification
• An eligible cohabiting partner is a partner you are living with who, at the date of your death, has met all of these conditions for a continuous period of at least two years:
  • you and your cohabiting partner are, and have been, free to marry each other or enter into a civil partnership with each other, and
  • you and your cohabiting partner have been living together as if you were a married couple or civil partners, and
  • neither you nor your cohabiting partner has been living with someone else as if you / they were a married couple or civil partners, and
  • either your cohabiting partner is and has been dependent on you, or you are and have been financially interdependent on each other.
• Eligible dependent children who meet the following criteria
  • under age 18, or
  • aged under 23 and in full-time education or vocation training. Your pension fund can continue to treat a child as an eligible child even of there has been a break in full-time or vocational training, or
  • under age 23 and unable to engage in gainful employment because of physical or mental impairment, or
  • over age 23, unable to engage in gainful employment because of permanent physical or mental impairment and the child was dependent on the member at the date of death because of that impairment. An independent registered medical practitioner must give their opinion on whether the impairment is likely to be permanent.

A death grant will not be payable if:

• You have reached age 75 at the time of death
• You have had your pension in payment more than 5 years if you have left the LGPS on or before 31/03/2008
• You have had your pension in payment more than 10 years if you have left the LGPS on or after 01/04/2008
• You are in receipt of a Survivor pension benefit
• Your pension with the LGPS was due to early retirement from the Teacher’s Scheme

If you have not already done so please return a completed Death Grant Expression of Wish Form to the Pension Section. You can also provide or amend your nominees using My Pension Online.

Combating Fraud/Re-employment

The Pension Fund participates in a data matching exercise called the National Fraud Initiative.  Pension records held with the City and County of Swansea Pension Fund are cross referenced with those held by the DWP to prevent overpayments and potential fraudulent payments.

Therefore, if you are or become re-employed with a local authority or an employer who participates in the LGPS and whether you decide to re-join the scheme or not you must notify both your current and former Pension Section so that they may assess the pension payment. Re-employment with another employer who does not participate in the LGPS is not affected.

Pensioners Living Outside of the UK

To ensure the continued eligibility of our members residing outside the UK, the Pension Fund is now working with Crown Agents Bank to conduct these checks, replacing the previous service provided by Western Union.

If you receive communication from Crown Agents Bank, we kindly ask that you respond at your earliest convenience. If we do not hear from you, we may need to temporarily suspend your pension until we can confirm your eligibility.

If you live outside the UK and have your pension paid into a non-UK bank, Western Union provides this service and is now known as Convera.

Pension Scams – WARNING

Anyone can be the victim of a pension scam, no matter how financially savvy they think they are. It’s important that everyone can spot the warning signs.

Scammers are often convincingly professional, with credible websites, testimonials and materials that are hard to distinguish from the real thing. Their aim is to persuade pension savers to either transfer their entire pension savings, or release funds from it. This is often to a scheme the scammer controls.

• Reject unexpected offers
• Check who you’re dealing with
• Don’t be rushed or pressured
• Get impartial information and advice

Frequently Asked Pension Payroll Questions:

I wish to change my address or my bank account.  What do I need to do?

 All changes to your personal details must be sent in writing, quoting your pension pay number, by:

The payroll deadline is normally mid-month, if your request to change bank details arrives after the payroll deadline, your changes will be effective the following month.

If you have appointed one or more person(s) to assist you with decision making concerning health, wellbeing and financial affairs and a Lasting Power of Attorney has been published, this supporting documentation should be included with the written notification. 

I have a query on my tax code; who do I contact?

Any tax code queries need to be referred to the HM Revenue & Customs by:

I have a query on my pension payment or need a copy of my P60 – who do I contact?

You can contact the Service Centre Helpdesk on (01792) 636098. Please ask for pension payroll and quote your pension pay number when contacting this number or

typing Pension Payroll in the subject line and emailing:

ServiceCentreHelpdesk@swansea.gov.uk

Address and Contact Details