Special Terms

CARE stands for Career Average Revalued Earnings.

Members of the DB section have been accruing CARE benefits since 1 January 2013. The pension and lump sum built up in each scheme year is calculated separately. They are then revalued in line with the level of inflation agreed by the trustees to the current date.

A child in relation to a deceased member includes a step-child, a child which has been legally adopted, a child conceived but not yet born and any other person deemed by the trustee to have been treated as a child of their family by the deceased member.

The definition of pensionable salary is given in a section further down.

For members in the Defined Benefit section who left before 31 March 2018 the Final Pensionable Salary is the greater of:

• the pensionable salary received in the twelve months immediately before the date of retirement, death, leaving OSPS or age 65 (if earlier); or
• the pensionable salary for any twelve consecutive months during the five years immediately before the date of retirement, death, leaving OSPS or age 65 (if earlier).

For members in the Defined Benefit section who left after 31 March 2018 the Final Pensionable Salary is the greater of:

• the pensionable salary received in the twelve months immediately before 31 March 2018; or
• the pensionable salary for any twelve consecutive months during the five years immediately before 31 March 2018.

This is a cash sum which is payable if you die within five years of retiring. It is the balance of five years’ pension payments.

This is an employee who works irregular hours that vary from time to time depending upon the needs of their employer. Irregular employees are only able to join the scheme at the discretion of their employer. The University admits all support staff who are irregular employees to join OSPS, but other employers have different policies.

This is the value of the total benefits you can build up under tax-privileged arrangements during your working life. It covers benefits from all the pension arrangements, personal and occupational, of which you are a member. It does not include any state scheme benefits. If the value of your total benefits is over the lifetime allowance when you retire, you will have to pay extra tax on the excess.

The amount of the lifetime allowance will vary each year. For more information see the Government Lifetime Allowance guidance website.

It is unlikely that any OSPS member will exceed the lifetime allowance unless they have significant benefits elsewhere.

If you joined the scheme before 6 April 2006 you can take your benefits from age 50 with a penalty. If you joined on or after 6 April 2006 the earliest date you can claim your pension is age 55. This will increase to age 57 from 6 April 2028.

If you qualify for ill health retirement you can claim your benefits at any age.

Do not believe anyone who tells you they can give you access to your benefits before your minimum retirement age. They will be fraudsters trying to gain access to your pension benefits. See the Pensions Regulator site for more information.

NICO pay is the pay subject to NI contributions between the LEL and the UEL. It is needed to calculate benefits for members who joined before 1 April 2016 and who leave without entitlement to preserved benefits.

We use your NRD to calculate your benefits, in particular whether you are claiming your benefits early or late. You do not have to retire at your NRD. Your employment retirement date is a matter between you and your employer. The University’s policy for support staff can be found here.

Your NRD is defined as follows:

• if you were born before 1 January 1948 it is 31 December 2012;
• if not, it is the later of age 65 and your state pension age in whole years;
• for benefits in the final salary section it is age 65.

You can work out your state pension age on the Government website.

As a result of the 1998 valuation a bonus equivalent to 1% of Pensionable Salary for every year and part year of Pensionable Service (calculated at 31 July 1998) was credited to a special investment account in respect of each active member as at 31 July 2018. This investment account is held with the Prudential. At retirement or death, the value of each member's bonus plus accrued interest can be used by the member to purchase additional benefits within or outside the scheme. It can also be transferred out by the member to another pension scheme separately to their main scheme benefits.

This is your basic salary or wages from your employer. If you take part in Salary Exchange, it is your salary before any reductions for Salary Exchange. It includes:

• any regular overtime required under your contract of employment and treated by your employer as part of normal remuneration; and
• any regular payments which are pensionable; but
• it does not include other overtime, or any fluctuating payments.

If you work part-time, your pensionable salary is based on your actual part-time salary for working out contributions and lump sums due if you die. For working out other benefits in the final salary section, your pensionable salary is based on the full-time equivalent of your salary.

This only applies to benefits in the final salary section and is:

•  your period of service in years and days in the final salary section of OSPS; and
•  any further period credited to you by the Trustees, such as service credited by transfers in from other schemes or from AVCs .

Pensionable service is only accrued after 31 December 2012 if you transferred in final salary benefits from a Public Sector Transfer Club scheme or are paying final salary AVCs. It is no longer possible to transfer benefits into the final salary section or to start final salary AVCs.

If you worked part-time, your pensionable service is in proportion to the hours you worked.

This is used for working out the benefits you are entitled to if you leave the defined benefit section before you retire, but leave your benefits in OSPS rather than transferring them to another pension arrangement. It includes:

• the length of time you have been in the scheme in your current period of membership;
• the length of time you had in a previous period of membership, provided you have preserved benefits for this period or have claimed them as a pension;
• the length of time you were in a pension scheme that you have transferred in (this is deemed to be at least two years if the transfer has come from a personal pension).
   

In the Salary Exchange arrangement instead of you paying contributions to the pension scheme, your employer pays the equivalent of your contributions into the pension scheme. Your employer then reduces your salary by the amount of your contributions, enabling you to make savings on your National Insurance (NI) contributions. Contributions paid through Salary Exchange cannot be refunded.

Prior to 6 April 1995 OSPS was not contracted out of SERPS. This meant that those members paying full rate National Insurance contributions earned a SERPS pension during their membership of OSPS from 6 April 1978 to 5 April 1995. To take account of the SERPS pension, a target pension of 1/80th x Final Pensionable Salary for each year of Pensionable Service was reduced by a formula amount to reflect the SERPS pension. This was known as the SERPS Offset.

These are staff who are not regarded as academic or academic-related by their employer. At the University this is all staff on grades 1 to 5. Some colleges follow this method, but others determine it by the type of work done rather than by salary level or grade.