Woking for a local authority - how does it work when moving to a new one?

[shizgigz]

I wonder if anyone can help.

I currently work for my LA in an admin role I despise. I’ve been there 18 months.
I've got an interview for a social care therapy job with the county council which is much more what I want to be doing but the big catch is it’s a fixed 2 year contact. Chances are it will be made permanent but it makes me feel very nervous especially as I am on my own.

I’m not sure about the pension situation although assume it’s all the same LGPS? Would it just transfer?

Also would my service reset or would my existing 18 months keep rolling?

I want to be as fully informed as possible before I sit the interview.

I moved authorities and they honoured my service (but I don’t think they have to) pension you can either keep it separate or transfer the balance into your new pension.

You would have the option to transfer your LGPS pension to the new council. You’ll have to confirm this is what you want, but it would be the expectation, and the pension teams would arrange it - it happens all the time. I’ve moved to six different ones in my 27 year career and have done this multiple times!

Your local government continuous service should continue too, which is useful if you are ever get made redundant. Even if they don’t renew your contract at the end of two years, if you have previous service, they would have to recognise this and treat your departure as a redundancy.

Having said all that, I’d check all this with your HR department in case there are any particular unusual circumstances that would mean this wasn’t the case, though I can’t see what they would be.

Also, for continuous service, I believe you literally have to finish one job the day before you start another - you’d have to take annual leave if you wanted a gap.

Thank you, this is reassuring and should I be offered to role will immediately seek clarity on service transfer.

regarding the LGPS I assume it’s all the same one and just a paperwork exercise getting it moved?

Its exactly the same LGPS, it would just be managed through a different Council’s Pension Fund.

Make sure they confirm they will honour your continuous service

And yes, you can't have a gap between one ending and the other starting use annual leave if you want a break between jobs

strangely there is another exact same post advertised, just for a different patch but that one is permanent. My post is a 2 year contract but slightly more money which I guess is to account for it being temporary.

For continuous service you are usually allowed five days off between the two jobs but check. Your pensions should be combined however you must check a couple of months in that they did this properly as my hr /admin team didn’t and j needed to chase.

It’s so hard to get jobs signed off in LAs it just depends where they have got the funding from

From what you’ve said it sounds like your pension would remain within the same administering authority (it sounds like you currently work for a district council and would be hopefully getting a job with the county council in the same county). If that’s the case then you should be set up with a new pension record for your new job and they should then write to you about combining the records.

If the new job is in a different area then you must make sure you tell the new pension fund about your old record so they can get the information from the previous fund, and then again they will write to you about combining them.

As you’ve said it’s all the same scheme and just a paperwork exercise getting it all joined up. As a pp said just keep track of it and make sure it happens because with the best will in the world things can sometimes slip through the cracks.

Thank you All. Yes current and new job are within same county - I’d just be going be going district to county.
if I get the job will make sure everything transfers properly