GP letter required to increase my pension contributions?!

[PensionPTake]

I want to increase my pension contributions (paid in via my salary with employer, which is a Local Authority scheme). I've been told in order to do so I need to produce a letter from my GP to say I'm in reasonable health and have a reasonable life expectancy. Is this normal? No doubt I'll have to pay for said GP letter and to me it seems utterly ridiculous to need this just to increase my contributions. Am I BU and very out of touch? or justified in being highly annoyed right now?

Maybe it's different here in Ireland but I have increased my pension contributions many times over the years and now pay AVCs. I always just email Payroll and they confirm it. I have never been asked for a GP letter!

Never heard of that before.

That sounds ridiculous (and incorrect).

I've just had exactly the same - also local authority. It's costing me £45 for the doctor to just sign a form! And it's taking ages for them to turn it around 🙄

Well it's a local authority so experience tells me it probably is ridiculous and incorrect! I need to find out for certain so I have something to go back to them with though.

That is ridiculous!

I'm guessing it's the local authority way of putting people off topping up their pensions because they don't want to pay out more?

Does your pension have some sort of life assurance element that is increased with contributions? If it does, they may want to check you're not topping it up because you've discovered you're dying. Though I've not heard of that.

Hmm interesting. I'm stubborn and will complain. I suppose it might be better to pay up and ask for the gp letter cost back, than battle for months to get them to acknowledge they're wrong whilst my pension doesn't increase any further though.

If this was a normal pension I would say
Does their contribution increase if yours does? If yes I can see the reasoning although it is highly annoying. If not then your health and life expectancy is absolutely nothing too with them and I would take it further.
It's not though it's a LA superannuation scheme so it's probably somewhere there in the small print.

It seemed odd to me but a search suggests that it may be required if a particular plan includes any benefits related to health or disability, and that

• Some pension schemes may have specific health-related criteria for participation or contribution levels.
• Employers need to ensure that employees meet these criteria to comply with the terms of the pension plan.

is your scheme (or at least, whatever the extra contributions go towards) defined contributions or defined benefits?

It has some sort of payout if I die before I retire I think. I suppose that would make sense then (not sure how much I could fleece them by on my whole 5 hr a week job mind!)

Is this an APC into LGPS?

If so then I believe if you leave your job due to ill health before the end of your APC period you will still get the full amount of pension you agreed to buy, even if you haven’t paid all of the APCs you had planned.

I’m guessing they don’t want people who are in ill health or planning to retire shortly using this as a loop hole to get free pension.

If you’re in LGPS your beneficiary will get your salary times a couple of times (the APC won’t impact the amount), plus a survivors pension which is proportionally not too bad to just your regular pension.

Yes it is. They did say I can opt to do AVC to an external provider instead if I want too.

Sounds like it might be normal then so I'll have to curse and moan quietly and just cough up for a GP letter.

I had exactly the same

Sounds like an issue for the union to take on.

Yes. It’s to stop people gaming the system

I checked the main LGPS web site and it's something your local scheme 'may' choose to ask for.
https://www.lgpsmember.org/buying-extra-pension-terms-and-conditions/

Your local pension fund may ask you to submit a medical report before accepting your application.

In my LGPS fund you have to submit medical certificate if the APC you’re buying is over a certain amount