The LGPS
Explained for Police Staff
The short answer
If you're police staff, you are almost certainly a member of the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) — not the Police Pension Scheme officers get. It's a genuine, valuable defined-benefit pension, but it's run by a completely different administrator, under completely different rules, and a pension calculator built for officers will not model your position correctly.
Why police staff aren't in the officer scheme
Police officers are office holders under the Crown, not employees — that's the whole reason they have their own dedicated Police Pension Scheme, written into Police Regulations rather than an ordinary pension contract. Police staff (including PCSOs) are ordinary employees, and for pension purposes that puts them in the same family of arrangements as most other local public-sector employees — hence the Local Government Pension Scheme, even though your actual employer is a police force rather than a council.
This isn't a technicality. It means a genuinely different administrator, a different set of regulations, different contribution bands, and none of the officer-specific features (commutation rules, Police Regulations-based ill-health tiers, injury awards) that a Police Pension Scheme member has.
LGPS vs Police Pension Scheme, side by side
| Police staff (LGPS) | Police officers | |
|---|---|---|
| Scheme name | Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) | Police Pension Scheme (2015, plus legacy schemes) |
| Who administers it | ~80-90 regional LGPS funds, run by local authorities | Centrally, via the Home Office / force pension teams |
| Benefit structure | Career average revalued earnings (CARE) | Career average revalued earnings (CARE), 2015 scheme |
| Normal Pension Age | Linked to your State Pension Age | Linked to your State Pension Age (2015 scheme) |
| Employee contributions | Banded against actual pensionable pay, set by LGPS regulations | Banded against actual pensionable pay, set by Police Pension Scheme regulations — different bands |
| Employer contributions | Set locally by each fund's own actuarial valuation | Set nationally for the Police Pension Scheme |
| Officer-specific features | None — no commutation-for-lump-sum rules built the way the officer scheme has them, no injury/ill-health award structure equivalent to Police Regulations | Commutation options, ill-health retirement tiers, injury awards under Police Regulations |
How the LGPS actually works
Career average, not final salary
Like the reformed 2015 Police Pension Scheme, the LGPS builds up your pension as a share of each year's actual pay, revalued each year, rather than being based on your final salary at retirement. Years with more pensionable pay (including relevant overtime, where it counts) build up a bigger pension for that year.
Normal Pension Age = State Pension Age
For most members, your Normal Pension Age moves with your State Pension Age, so it's an individual figure rather than one fixed age for everyone. You can draw benefits from age 55 (rising over time), but usually with a reduction for taking them early.
Banded employee contributions
You don't pay one flat percentage — your contribution rate is set by which pay band your actual pensionable pay falls into, so higher earners pay a higher percentage. The bands are reviewed periodically, so check your latest annual benefit statement for the rate that applies to you specifically.
Locally set employer contributions
Unlike the centrally-set Police Pension Scheme employer rate, each regional LGPS fund sets its own employer contribution rate following its own actuarial valuation (roughly every three years) — so the true cost of your pension to your employer isn't one single national figure.
A genuine warning: officer pension calculators won't work for you
A calculator built around the Police Pension Scheme 2015 — its commutation rules, its ill-health tiers, its injury award structure — will not correctly model an LGPS pension. The underlying benefit formula is similarly shaped (career average, State Pension Age-linked), but the contribution bands, administering body, and every officer-specific feature are different. If you're police staff, use figures and tools built around the LGPS specifically, or speak to your own fund administrator.
Common questions
Are police staff in the same pension scheme as police officers?
No. Police officers are members of the Police Pension Scheme (the 2015 scheme for most serving officers, alongside legacy schemes for some longer-serving members). Police staff — including PCSOs — are members of the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS), an entirely separate scheme administered by regional LGPS pension funds rather than centrally by the Home Office.
Is the LGPS a good pension?
The LGPS is a defined benefit, career-average scheme with employer-backed guarantees — genuinely valuable compared to most private-sector defined contribution pensions, where your eventual pot depends entirely on investment performance. Whether it's "good" for you specifically depends on your own circumstances (age, expected service length, other pension provision) rather than a single yes/no answer.
What is Normal Pension Age in the LGPS?
For most members, Normal Pension Age in the LGPS is linked to your State Pension Age, the same underlying principle used in the reformed 2015 Police Pension Scheme. You can take benefits earlier, from age 55 (rising over time in line with wider pension freedoms), but usually with an early-payment reduction if taken before your Normal Pension Age.
How much do I contribute to the LGPS?
LGPS employee contributions are banded against your actual pensionable pay, not a single flat percentage — broadly, higher earners sit in a higher contribution band and pay a higher percentage. The exact bands are reviewed and can change, so check your latest LGPS annual benefit statement or your fund's website for the rate that applies to you right now, rather than relying on a fixed number here.
Does the McCloud pension age discrimination remedy apply to LGPS members?
The LGPS had its own separate remedy process for the same underlying age-discrimination issue that produced the McCloud judgment, with its own transitional/underpin arrangements distinct in detail from the remedy that applies to police officers' pensions. If this affects your own record, your LGPS fund administrator (not a police pension calculator built for officers) is the right place to check exactly how it was applied.
Who actually administers my LGPS pension?
Not the Home Office, and not one single national body. The LGPS is run through around 80-90 regional pension funds across England and Wales (Scotland and Northern Ireland run their own separate LGPS arrangements), each administered by a local authority acting as the scheme's administering authority for its area. Your own force's police staff will be members of whichever regional fund covers that force area.