Just a few of the reasons why your CARE pay might be lower than you expect are:
- You've been off work through illness or injury:
If you've been off work because of illness or injury and moved to reduced or no pay, your employer needs to tell us about your 'assumed pensionable pay', which reflects what you would have earned had you not been off work, based on your most recent periods of full pay.
If you think your employer hasn’t done this, please contact them directly.
- You've been off work through child-related leave:
If you've had a period of paid child-related leave, such as maternity leave, and been on reduced pay, this should trigger your employer to include 'assumed pensionable pay' in the pay details they send to us.
If you think that may not have happened, please contact your employer directly.
- You have had other authorised leave without pay:
If you've had a period of authorised unpaid leave or unpaid additional child-related leave, your CARE pay will be lower because you weren’t paid. However, you can buy the pension you lost because of your absence. Your employer will be able to tell you how much pay you've lost and you can use that to find out how much it'll cost you.
Go to the national LGPS member website for more details and an online calculator. If you apply within 30 days of your return to work, your employer will share the costs with you. If you apply after 30 days of your return to work, your employer is not obligated to share the cost with you, but they may do so at their discretion.
- Your contract has changed:
If your contract has changed and some or all of your working hours have been moved into a different contract, you may now have more than one pension record. If that’s the case, we'll send you a separate pension statement.
Please note: any query in relation to your pay must be addressed directly to your employer rather than Staffordshire Pension Fund.