Lifetime Allowance & Annual Allowance information

The LTA is the total value of all your private and work pensions, but not any state pension, which you can build up without paying extra tax. The LTA for tax year 2006 – 2007 is £1.5 million. Most people will not get anywhere near the LTA for example a member of premium would need to be getting pensions worth over £75,000 a year before they were affected.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer has announced the basic value of the LTA for the first few tax years as follows:

The LTA will be reviewed every five years.

Just before you start receiving your Principal Civil Service Pension Scheme (Northern Ireland), [PCSPS(NI)] pension benefits we will send out a personal details form with your courtesy estimate, on this you will need to tell us about any other pensions you have. We will send you a certificate showing how much of your LTA has been used up by the pension which has come into payment. If the total value of all your pensions is over the LTA, we will work out how much tax you need to pay and deduct it direct from your pension. If your PCSPS(NI) pension takes you over the LTA you may, if you wish, pay the tax in a lump sum.We will not start paying your PCSPS(NI) pension until you have told us about your other pensions and we can work out how much LTA you have left.

The Annual Allowance is the limit on how much tax-free pension saving you can make in any one year If your pension saving in any year is over the Annual Allowance you may have to pay extra income tax.

For further details on LTA and AA and how to calculate them you can read information booklet:

All booklets and leaflets can be found in the resources section.

If you would like more information please contact the Member Administration Section.

You can find their number in the contact us section.