How we keep in touch

Benefit statements

Each year we will send you a statement showing you an estimate of your benefits.

Newsletter

Active pension members' newsletter is called...

This newsletter is issued as necessary and contains useful information regarding changes to the scheme regulations, topical pension issues and updates on the service we provide. Changes to the annual and lifetime allowances have recently been publicised.

Occasionally it will be issued at the same time as the annual benefit statements.

Benefit statements

Each year we will send you a statement showing you the current value of your deferred benefits.

When will my deferred benefits be paid?

You can claim your deferred pension benefits at any time between age 60 and 75 if you left your job before 1 April 2014. If you left your job after 1 April 2014 you can claim your benefits any time between age 55 and 75.

We pay your deferred benefits from your normal pension age unless you decide to take them earlier at a reduced rate, or later at an enhanced rate. We will send you a retirement pack just before your normal pension age. The pack will include a form that you need to fill in and return so we can pay your deferred benefits.

Your normal pension age is the age you can retire and take the pension benefits you have built up in full. For any pension benefits you build up before April 2014 there's a protected normal pension age of 65 (unless you're one of a very small number of members with an earlier protected age of 60). The protection means that if you take your pension benefits at your protected normal pension age, the pension benefits you built up before 1 April 2014 will be paid in full.

For the pension you build up from 1 April 2014, your normal pension age is the same as your state pension age (but with a minimum of age 65).

Any future changes to state pension age will mean that your normal pension age for the part of your deferred benefits you build up from 1 April 2014 will also change. However, if you were in the scheme before 1 April 2014, the protected normal pension age for the part of the deferred benefits you built up before 1 April 2014 will not change.

Are deferred benefits inflation proofed?

Deferred benefits keep their value while they're with us because we increase them every year in line with the Consumer Prices Index.

You'll be able to see how your deferred benefits are going up on your statement each year. Your statement will show you:

the value of your benefits at the time you left the scheme, and
the current value of your benefits, including cost-of-living increases that we add each April.

“Pensioner News” (title of your fund’s newsletter)

This is the newsletter we will send to you each year to keep you up to date with what is happening with the Tower Hamlets Pension Fund and in the pensions world in general.

P60s

A P60 is a certificate showing the pension paid and the tax deducted during the previous tax year. We will send you a P60 in May each year.

Payslips

We send you a payslip to you at least twice a year.

Pension increase notification

We will write to you every April with details of your pension increase.