Pension Increases

The Pensions (Increase) Act 1971 provides for cost of living increases which apply to public service pensions.  Each year in April, in line with the Pensions Increase (Review) Order, NILGOSC increases pensions in payment and deferred pensions to reflect rises in the cost of living. 

The Pensions Increase applied in April is normally based on the increase in the Retail Prices Index (RPI) during the twelve months to the September of the previous year. The budget statement of 22 June 2010 announced that from April 2011, the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) will replace RPI as the measure of inflation used to apply cost of living increases.

 
Transfers

Transfer factors are based on a number of assumptions made by the Government Actuary’s Department (GAD), including life expectancy and future cost of living increases. As the cost of living increases will be applied using a different measure of inflation, GAD will need to review the factors and amend them if necessary.

We have received instructions from HM Treasury restricting the use of the factors used to calculate the Cash Equivalent Transfer Values (CETVs) of our scheme members, so we are unable to process any new transfer requests received after 06 July 2010. We will review any transfer requests received after this date once further instructions are received from HM Treasury.