Limits on how much you can pay

There is no overall limit on the amount of contributions you can pay to increase your pension benefits.

However, tax relief will only be given on contributions up to 100% of your taxable earnings (or on £3,600 of contributions a year if this is greater).

You cannot pay more than your earnings, after deductions for your Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) pension rights, into our scheme's Additional Voluntary Contributions (AVC) arrangement.

As your normal LGPS contributions are between 5.5% and 12.5% of your pay this leaves a significant proportion of your taxable earnings that you can invest in Additional Pension Contributions (APCs) or Additional Voluntary Contributions (AVCs).

Under HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) tax rules there are controls on the pension savings you can have before you become subject to a tax charge. These mainly affect some higher paid people. These controls, and the potential effect of paying extra contributions if you have lifetime allowance enhanced or fixed protection, are explained in more detail in Do the tax rules on pension savings limit the extra I can pay?