Section A

Pensions Portal

Active members can manage their BT Pension Scheme on the secure member area.

Your Journey

News feed

Section C Court Case: Update

Dec

2018

The Court of Appeal has now also confirmed that it is currently not possible to change from RPI to another index.

Judicial Review Update

Nov

2018

The High Court has now published its judgment and has determined that the decision made by Her Majesty’s Treasury was valid.

GMP Court Ruling

Oct

2018

You may have recently seen in the news the decision by the High Court that pension schemes should equalise benefits between women and men who have guaranteed minimum pensions.

BT Pension Scheme appoints Morten Nilsson as Chief Executive Officer

Oct

2018

The Trustee of the BT Pension Scheme (BTPS) is pleased to announce the appointment of Morten Nilsson as Chief Executive Officer of BT Pension Scheme Management Limited (BTPSM).

Section C Court Case: update

Oct

2018

An update on the court case relating to Section C of the BT Pension Scheme

Judicial Review Update

Aug

2018

There was a short interim hearing for the Court to decide how any questions regarding the interpretation of the BTPS Rules should, as a matter of process, be dealt with.

What are AVCs?

The BTPS Additional Voluntary Contribution (AVC) facility is a tax efficient way to improve your retirement savings. You can pay extra contributions into the BTPS which are invested within a fund and which, adjusted for investment returns, are applied at retirement to provide additional pension and/or tax-free lump sum benefits. More information can be found in the AVC Guide, which can be downloaded from Useful documents.

If you pay AVCs into the BTPS you benefit from:

tax relief on your contributions (within HMRC limits);

funds accumulate free of income tax and capital gains tax; and

25% of your overall BTPS benefits, including AVCs, may be taken as a tax-free lump sum (capped at 25% of the Lifetime Allowance).

You should be aware that there are also other ways to increase your retirement savings:

If you are a Section A or a Section B member you may increase your retirement benefits by buying Added Years of Pensionable Service. A separate booklet on Added Years is available on the BT Intranet (Added Years is not available to Section C members).

Free Standing AVC Schemes, Personal Pension Plans and Self Invested Personal Pension Plans are all registered pension schemes which benefit from the same tax concessions as BTPS and AVCs. They are offered by insurance companies and similar organisations. If you wish to contribute to one of these, you must make your own arrangements with the provider of those schemes.

There are other types of investments you can consider to boost your retirement savings, but these are outside the scope of this booklet.

It is for you to decide which the best savings method is for you. As for any savings it is recommended that you seek independent financial advice. A financial adviser may charge you a fee for advice.