The Government is planning changes to the LGPS rules to improve outcomes for members and their dependants. The Government is asking for views on these plans in the LGPS: Access and Fairness consultation.
Some of the changes will affect what is paid after an LGPS member dies.
Under the current rules, some survivor pensions paid to husbands, wives or civil partners are worked out differently depending on the sex of the member and their partner. The Government plans to change the LGPS rules to remove this unfairness. Not all survivor pensions will be affected. If a survivor pension is affected by this change, it will increase.
When an LGPS pensioner member dies, there may be a death grant payable. This depends on when the member left the Scheme and how long their pension has been paid for. However, under the current rules, no death grant is paid when a member over age 75 dies. The Government plans to remove this upper age limit. This would mean that the pensions of members who retire later (after age 65) are protected by the death grant in the same way as the pensions of members who retire earlier.
These changes will remove unfairness in the Scheme and will be backdated. This means that some survivor pensions that are already being paid will increase and new death grants will be paid in respect of some members who died after age 75.
The LGPS rules have not been changed yet. If you think you might be affected, your pension fund cannot make any additional payments until they are. We will add a further news article when the LGPS rules are changed.
You can read more about what is paid when an LGPS member dies in the After you die FAQs.
The Government is also planning to change other areas of the Scheme rules, including:
- how unpaid leave affects your LGPS pension
- reporting on the gender pension gap and opt out rates
- technical changes to make sure members protected by the McCloud remedy are treated fairly.
The Government welcomes views from Scheme members on the plans set out in the LGPS: Access and Fairness consultation. The consultation closes on 7 August 2025.