FAQs

No. We don’t accept transfers into the Scheme.

If you leave the Company, or opt out of the Scheme, no further pension benefits will build up. Your exit pension will be calculated and you will then be classed as a deferred member. For more information about leaving the scheme please refer to the Member Booklet available in the Documents section.

Yes, you can transfer your Scheme benefits to a registered pension arrangement. However, you will need to opt-out of the Scheme first and become a deferred member.

 

You can request a transfer value from the Scheme Administrator. You will be issued with a quotation which is normally guaranteed for three months from the date of the calculation. Various forms will be included that you will need to complete if you proceed with the transfer.

 

You should seek advice on transferring, normally from a financial adviser. The Scheme Administrator will undertake a series of checks before any transfer payment is made. This will include asking you to provide evidence that you have received advice if your transfer value is greater than £30,000. Once all the information has been received and checks are finalised, arrangements will be made to pay the transfer value direct to your nominated pension arrangement.

 

Please note that partial transfers are available subject to certain conditions being met, which the Scheme Administrator can explain to you.

 

If you have been contacted out of the blue about transferring your Scheme benefits please read the Pension Scams section.

If you are going through a divorce you may need to provide information about your Scheme benefits and you will normally need something called a Cash Equivalent Transfer Value. You should contact the Scheme Administrator directly for this information.

 

Once your divorce is finalised the Court will issue a Pension Sharing Order confirming how your pension should be shared, if this is the agreed course of action. The Court will provide a formal document sets out what proportion of your Scheme benefits should be shared with your ex-spouse / partner. Send this document to the Scheme Administrator.

 

The Scheme Administrator will provide confirmation how the Pension Sharing Order affects your Scheme benefits. It will also confirm what fees are payable to the Scheme by you and/or your ex-spouse / partner for the work that is involved in dealing with the Pension Sharing Order.

 

Once the fees are paid a payment is made from the Scheme directly to the approved arrangement nominated by your ex-spouse / partner. Note that the Scheme will not hold pension benefits for your ex-spouse / partner, they must be transferred out. The value of your Scheme benefits is reduced to reflect the payment made.

Deferred members (including those who were active in the scheme when it closed in May 2022) should have received a statement showing their deferred pension payable on reaching age 65.

 

If you want a reminder about the amount of your deferred pension, and how it has increased with inflation since you stopped being an active member, please visit the “PRISM” website at NWPS | Northumbrian Water Pension Scheme or contact Hymans Robertson (see “Contact Us” below).

You should refer to the Member Booklet available under Documents section for information on how your pension is calculated, as this the calculation may be different depending on whether you are retiring early, or due to redundancy /

ill-health.

You have the option of taking your Scheme pension and continuing to work for the Company. This is called Flexible Retirement and is available to active members over age 55. For more information on Flexible Retirement please refer to the Member Booklet available under Documents section.

The earliest retirement age is currently 55. Watch out for any Government announcements in coming years. Government policy has indicated that the early retirement age will be increased to 57 when the State Pension Age is increased to 67 in 2028. However there’s currently no legislation saying that this definitely will happen.

The answer depends on whether you are an active or deferred member or a pensioner, and whether you leave a spouse or dependants. You should refer to the Member Booklet available under Documents section for details.

Pension payments rarely change from month to month so we don’t issue payslips regularly. The Scheme Administrator normally issues payslips in February / March containing information about any increases to be made in April, and again when P60s are issued.

Increases to your pension normally take place in 1 April each year. If you have been retired for less than a year a proportionate increase is applied.

Please notify the Scheme administrator whose contact details are in the

Contact Us section. The Scheme Administrator may ask for details of the next of kin or executor so please have these to hand if possible.

If you are an active member you should let the Company know about changes, such as a change of name or address. The Company will ensure that these are passed to the Scheme Administrator.

 

If you are a deferred member or pensioner please notify the Scheme administrator of changes to your personal details. Its contact Please notify the Scheme administrator whose contact details are in the Contact Us section.

For further Scheme information please refer to the Member Booklet available in the Documents section.

The first thing to note is that you can start your pension without actually retiring from the company (see “Can I take my pension and carry on working” above). We call this “Flexible Retirement”.


The process is similar, regardless of whether you go for Flexible Retirement or physically retire from NWL as normal. Either way, the earliest age at which you can take your pension at present, unless you are in ill-health, is 55 (but see “What’s the earliest age that I can retire”).


The first thing to do is to ask the Scheme Administrator to provide a retirement benefits estimate at your chosen retirement date. You can do this either on request via Hymans Robertson’s website, NWPS | Northumbrian Water Pension Scheme, or by phone or email (see Contact us). Once you have received your estimate and if you decide that you wish to retire from NWL, you should begin a discussion with your Line Manager so that he or she can plan how to manage the vacancy that will be created when you leave.


After that discussion, and once you’ve both have agreed when your pension is to start, you should, as stated in the retirement benefits estimate, contact the HR Operations Helpdesk (HROperationsHelpdesk@nwl.co.uk), about 6 weeks before your leave date to confirm your agreed leave date (even if your manager has already done this) and ask HR to provide the Scheme Administrator with an “Advance Leaver Form” if they haven’t already done so.


This will confirm your leave date to the administrator, who will then send you a Retirement and Transfer Option (RTO) pack setting out your benefit options (pension, retirement lump sum and transfer value) at your chosen retirement date.


At some point in this process you may wish to consider taking a transfer value instead of a pension from the Scheme (see “Can I transfer my Scheme benefits” above). Please note that in all but the smaller (£30,000 or less) value transfers you will need to obtain advice from a specialised Independent Financial Adviser (IFA) on transferring your pension. The NWPS can make this advice available if you do not have your own adviser and the RTO pack will contain information about how you can access this advice and a password for access to the adviser’s website.


Once you have chosen your retirement option you should again contact the Scheme Administrator and ask for your option forms. These confirm your chosen option and provide the administrator with details of the bank account into which your benefits are to be paid and other information needed to comply with the tax rules for pensions. You should complete these as soon as possible and email or post them back to the administrator.


Once your leave date is reached the Scheme Administrator will pay your retirement lump sum (if you have requested one) and make an “on account” payment of your first monthly pension instalment. Any balance of your first pension payment will be made in the month after HR send a “Final Leaver Form” to the Scheme Administrator, which they will do after you have left the company (or reached the agreed payment date if you are taking flexible retirement – i.e. taking pension without leaving the company).


Ongoing pension payments are made on the first day of each month, or the previous working day if the first is a non-working day (i.e. a weekend or bank holiday).


More information on the advice available to people who wish to start their pension is available in the Documents section.