Increase your Additional Voluntary Contributions if you'd like the chance to retire early, or retire with more money.

• An AVC plan is a separate pot of money you build up alongside your main LGPS, that aims to give you extra retirement benefits.
• Contributions are taken directly from your pay before tax. This means you benefit from tax savings, as the money you'd normally pay as Income Tax, will go into your AVC pot instead. If you don’t pay Income Tax, you won’t benefit from tax savings. Tax savings will depend on your individual circumstances. Rules can also change.
• The size of your AVC pot will depend on how much you pay in, how long you pay in for, the impact of costs, charges and how well the fund(s) you invest in perform.
• To increase your contributions, you must be actively contributing to your main LGPS.

For more information, please read your Key Features Document in the 'Change your AVC contributions' section of this site.

You may need more money than you think when you retire as

• your savings may not go as far in the future if inflation makes the price of goods and services go up
• people are generally living longer and spending more time retired, so your savings will need to last you longer, and
• your main LGPS benefits might not be enough to fund the kind of lifestyle you want in retirement.

If the worst happens and you pass away before you’re eligible to take your money, we’ll pay the value as a lump sum. This will normally be to your spouse, civil partner, dependants or your legal representative.

You should regularly review your AVC pot to check you're on track to achieve the lifestyle you want when you stop working.

Register for our online service, or login if you already have an account, to check the value of your AVC pot online. You can also check your AVC value in your Annual Benefit statement.

Remember, if you've changed your employer at any stage and had to start a new AVC pot, you may have more than one pot to review.

You can use your AVCs to buy life cover from Prudential. For more information, please read your Key Features Document or call us for a pack. You'll find our number and the Key Features Document in the 'Change your AVC contributions' section of this site.

Your LGPS has other options to increase your retirement benefits. Visit their website for more information.

With Salary Sacrifice Shared Cost AVCs, you agree with your employer to reduce your pay. In return, your employer will pay an amount equal to the reduction in your pay, into an AVC pot in your name. This will reduce your earnings and you'll pay less Income Tax and National Insurance, depending on your personal circumstances (as you can see below, for a 20% rate taxpayer paying 13.25% NI). For more information about the rate of National Insurance visit the HM Revenue & Customs website.

You’ll also have to contribute a total of £1 each time your employer pays your Salary Sacrifice contributions. If you're a 20% rate taxpayer, a £1 contribution will cost you £0.80. The £0.20 you'd pay in Income Tax would go into your AVC pot instead. If you pay tax at a higher rate, the cost to you will be even less. You’ll normally make Income Tax savings on the £1 contribution, but not National Insurance savings.

The process is simple and it's all done for you by your employer. Salary Sacrifice Shared Cost AVCs may not be suitable or possible for some members. Your employer can provide you with further details of how salary sacrifice works in their salary sacrifice shared cost arrangement. 

Regular AVCs are taken from your pay before tax, so the money you’d normally pay as Income Tax will automatically go into your AVC pot instead, as you can see below. If you pay tax at a higher rate, your tax savings will be higher. If you don't pay tax, you won't benefit from tax savings.