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My circumstances have changed

A summary of how life changes may also affect your pension and plans for the future.

Contents

Life is rarely straightforward, so it’s important to understand how a change in circumstances may affect your pension.

A change to your circumstances could be:

Suffering from ill-health

If you need to take long term sick leave, please speak to your employer about how this will affect your pension and whether your contributions can be paused. 

If you need to stop work completely due to ill-health, you may be able to start taking your Fund pension and cash lump sum straight away, even if you haven’t reached your Normal Retirement Age (NRA). We call this an incapacity pension.

You won’t be given an incapacity pension automatically if you stop work due to ill-health. You must meet the criteria outlined in the Fund rules to qualify. This includes: 

  • having at least 5 years membership in the Fund - please check your Member Guide to find out more. You can find this by logging into your myFund account and going to ‘My Library’.
  • you are under your Normal Retirement Age (NRA)

If you meet these criteria, your employer will arrange for you to be assessed by its occupational health provider. The Trustee will consider the medical reports and any additional evidence, including the opinion of its medical adviser, to decide if it thinks you are able to work in your current role, or any other suitable role with BTP or any other employer.

If the Trustee awards an incapcity pension, your benefits will not be reduced for their early payment. You may also be awarded an enhancement to your benefits.

If you suffer from a serious illness and your life expectancy is less than 12 months, you may be able to take all your pension entitlement as a lump sum.

You can find out more about taking your pension early due to ill-health in the guide for members applying for incapacity benefits.

Taking a career break

A 'career break' is an unpaid period of absence, but you remain employed by BTP.

If you're planning to go on a 'career break', read the information on this page to understand what may happen to your pension while you're absent from work and once you return.

While you're on a career break

While you are on a career break, you will not pay contributions or earn membership. However, you will continue to be covered for death in service and incapacity, in the same way you were covered before the career break started.

Once you return from your break

Once you return to work from a career break, you can tell BTP that you want to either:

  • Make up pension contributions and buy-back the missed membership. BTP will also pay arrears of contributions and your pension will not be affected by the career break; or
  • Not pay arrears and have the period of career break counted as a non-contributory membership. In this situation, you will have a gap in membership for that period that will not count towards your pension.

If you do not return to work following a career break, your pension scheme membership will be treated as though you stopped membership on the day your career break started.

Taking family leave

If you’re on family leave, for example following the arrival of a child, then you may get one of these types of pay:

  • Maternity pay
  • Paternity pay
  • Family pay
  • Adoption leave pay

If you are getting one of those types of pay, then what you pay into your pension will be based on that and not on your normal pay. Your employer will continue to pay into your pension based on your normal pay. Your pension benefits will not be affected and will continue to be based on your normal rate of pay.

If you get no pay during family leave then your payments into your pension and membership will be paused. Your employer may choose to continue to pay these on your behalf, however you would need to pay your employer back once you return to work. You would then also restart paying your normal contributions. Please speak to your employer for more details.

You can find more information in the guide to family leave.

Getting divorced or the dissolution of a civil partnership

If you’re going through a divorce or the dissolution of a civil partnership, your pension is likely to be considered along with your other assets when financial settlements are worked out.

A court order can be made to transfer part of the value of your pension benefits during the divorce or dissolution proceedings. If this is the case, it would mean your Fund benefits will reduce to provide benefits for your ex-spouse or ex-civil partner.

For more information about divorce and your pension please go to the divorce and my pension page and check the guide for members. 

Changing your working hours

If your working hours change it’s likely your wages will too.

That means how much you pay into your pension may also change. The amount that you pay into your pension is worked out using your full-time rate of pensionable pay for your job but is reduced for the hours you work. 

If you go part-time then you will still be entitled to the same range of benefits as your full-time colleagues. However, the amount you pay in and the amount you receive will be based on the part-time hours you work. You can find out more in the guide to working part time.

If you’re leaving work entirely, your active membership of the Fund will end automatically. You can find more information on the leaving the Fund and opting out page.