What’s so good about a Local Government Pension Scheme?

[MellowBird85]

Can someone explain in simple terms why LGPS is better than a standard scheme? I’m 35 and have been paying into it since I was 18 but my employer did away with them a couple of years ago as it was apparently too expensive. I’m still in it as part of a legacy contract and have opted to pay in a lump sum over this year plus applied for an AVC due to recent maternity leave and going part-time...but I don’t really know what I’m doing, I just know they’re “good”.

This thread is amazing. I've worked in LG on and off since 2001 and have never been able to make any sense of what I'd get at the end of it!

You accrue 1/49th of your salary every year. Plus inflation rises and indexing, but let’s not worry about that for the moment.

Let’s pretend you have a 35 year career with the local government. You earn £18k for ten years, £22k for ten years, £30k for ten years and then £35k for five years. You would accrue a local government annual pension of:

18000/4910 = 3673
22000/4910 = 4489
30000/4910 = 6122
35000/495 = 3571

Total = 17857.