Frequently asked questions

My NILGOSC Pension Online is only available to Active, Deferred, Pensioner and Dependant members of the LGPS (NI).  Previous members, who have transferred out or received a refund of contributions from the scheme, will not be able to register.

To start the registration process, if you have not received an Activation Key from us, complete the register without activation key section.  You will be asked to provide your Surname, National Insurance number, Date of Birth and a valid email address. If you have received an Activation Key from us, complete the register with activation key section.  You will be asked to provide your Surname, National Insurance number, Date of Birth and your Activation Key.

This message will appear on your screen if the information you have provided for Sign Up cannot be validated with our internal records. Please check the information you have provided. Boxes will turn green if information has been entered in the correct format. It does not indicate that the information is correct or matches what is on our records. If the box is red you need to ensure you have entered the details in the correct format.  E.g. 9 digit NI Number, DOB as DD/MM/YYYY. If the information is being entered correctly and you are still unable to progress, this would suggest that either your Surname, NI Number or DOB is held incorrectly on our records, therefore please contact the NILGOSC administration team on 0345 3197 325.

If you have previously completed the sign up section and received a success notification, a registration link will be issued to you automatically via email. Please check your Junk/Spam folder to ensure the email has not been directed there. If after 30 minutes you have still not received an email please contact the NILGOSC administration team on 0345 3197 325.

Registration links are only valid for 24 hours before they expire. Therefore the link will no longer be valid and you will need to complete the register without activation key section, Sign Up form again to issue you with a new registration link. Registration links become redundant once a new sign up form has been submitted. Therefore if you submit the form more than once, any new registration link emailed makes a previous link redundant.

If you have received an Activation Key from us, complete the register with activation key section.  You will be asked to provide your Surname, National Insurance number, Date of Birth and Activation Key. For further guidance please refer to our Registration Guide (1.22 KB PDF).

If you have previously completed the sign up section and received a success notification that your email address is not currently held on our system and that an activation code will be issued to your postal address by letter, this should have been issued within 3-5 working days of your request. If after 5 working days you have not received this letter please contact the NILGOSC administration team on 0345 3197 325.

If you have lost your activation key you can complete the Sign Up form again to issue you with a new activation key letter, or alternatively contact a NILGOSC administrator on 0345 3197 325 to have this issued. Please note once a new activation key has been generated any previous activation keys issued to you will no longer work.

If you forget your username, you can use the ‘Forgotten your username?’  link on the Login Page. You will then be prompted to input your Surname, NI Number and Date of Birth. Once your information has been validated, an email will be sent to the email address recorded on our database. This email will display your username, no personal information will be included.

If you forget your password, you can use the ‘Forgotten your password?’  link on the Login Page. You will then be prompted to input your Username, Surname, NI Number and Date of Birth. Once your information has been validated, you will be shown both a Password hint, which gives you an option to return to the login page if the hint has helped you to remember your password, or the option to reset your password. If you select to reset your password a secure password rest link will then be sent to the email address we hold for you on record.

If you forget your security response, you can use the ‘Forgotten your response?’  link on the Login Page. You will then be prompted to input your Username, Surname, NI Number and Date of Birth. Once your information has been validated, an email will be sent to the email address we hold for you on record. The email will contain a secure link for you to reset your security questions and responses.

If you have entered an invalid password or security response on three consecutive occasions, your account will be disabled. In order to re-enable your account for use, you must return to the Login page and select the ‘Forgotten your password?’ link. You will then be prompted to input your Username, Surname, NI Number and Date of Birth. Once your information has been validated, you will be displayed with both a Password hint and the option to reset your password. You must select reset your password, a secure password rest link will then be sent to the email address we hold for you on record.

Once logged on to your My NILGOSC Pension Online account you can change your email address through: Your Details > Contact Details > Edit.

For security reasons your session will time out if left unattended for more than 5 minutes. If this occurs, you must log in again to continue viewing your account. To sign out correctly, please go to the Your Account tab (located at the top right corner of your screen), choose the logout option then wait for the message; “you have successfully logged off,” before closing your browser.

No. My NILGOSC Pension Online allows you to access all of your LGPS(NI) pension records. Once you have successfully registered and logged into my NILGOSC Pension Online, a notification will appear on the top right hand section of your screen if you have other employments. These can be accessed by clicking on the green arrow button and selecting the applicable employment from the drop down menu.

You can amend contact and bank details through: Your Details > Contact Details > Edit. Please DO NOT use punctuation marks in your address as this can cause problems when we run certain programs.  Other personal details that are not available to edit on this page can be amended by completing and returning an LGS24 – Change in Circumstances (2.06 MB PDF) form.

For any other amendments please contact the NILGOSC administration team on 0345 3197 325.

My NILGOSC Pension Online displays the information that is currently held on your pension record(s). Some amendments may take up to 10 working days from the day we receive notification of a change.

If it has been beyond this timeframe, please submit a query through the contact us section of My NILGOSC Pension Online, or contact the NILGOSC administration team on 0345 3197 325.

This is the age at which you are able to draw your pension benefits without any reductions or enhancements.

Prior to the introduction of the CARE Scheme on 01/04/2015, the Local Government Pension Scheme (NI) had a Normal Retirement Age of 65 years, however since this transition, the normal pension age is now in line with your New State Pension Age (with a minimum of 65 years old). If you left the Scheme before 01/04/2015 you will have a Normal Retirement Age of 65.

You can find out your State Pension Age by visiting the .gov.uk website.

Early Retirement

If you voluntarily retire before your Normal Pension Age, your benefits will normally be reduced as your pension will be paid for longer.

The reduction is based on the length of time (in years and days) that you retire early i.e. the period between the date your benefits are paid and your Normal Pension Age, meaning that the earlier you retire, the greater the reduction.

As a guide, the current percentage reductions for retirements up to 13 years early are shown on our Early Retirement webpage. Where the number of years is not exact, the reduction percentages are adjusted accordingly.

There have been multiple changes to the Local Government Pension Scheme (NI) which may directly affect the benefits you have accrued in the Scheme. The following table outlines some key changes which occurred when the Scheme changed on 1st April 2009 and again on 1st April 2015.

FTE* – Full-time equivalent pensionable pay, for the 12 months prior to date of leaving. Whether you were a member of the Scheme during one, two or all three tranches, the benefits that you accrued during that specific period will be fully protected and will remain as they were during that tranche.

For more Information for how your benefits are calculated please visit the How are my benefits calculated? section of our website.

The Membership Details page displays current and any previous employment information. In this section when referring to employments this includes any changes to your contract which has occurred during your membership.

A change in contract may refer to a change in your hours, whole-time equivalent hours, contracted weeks and any other contractual changes.

Any membership built up from pension benefits transferred into the Scheme and from periods of concurrent membership that have been added to this record from a previous LGPS(NI) pension record which have now ceased are also displayed. We will have previously notified you of such amendments.

The membership (years/days) shown on this page is displayed as the whole-time equivalent service accrued during the period of employment. Therefore for a period of part-time employment your membership is reduced to its whole-time equivalent length. For example, if you work half-time for ten years, your benefits would be calculated on five years membership, but the pay used would be scaled up to a whole-time equivalent.

Note: From 01 April 2015, we no longer require employers to update us on changes to your employment contract as from this point we entered the Career Average (CARE) Scheme. Therefore, current details may not reflect any changes after this date.

If you still have concerns regarding your membership, please submit a query from the contact us section of My NILGOSC Pension Online or contact the NILGOSC administration team on 0345 3197 325.

Between April and June each year NILGOSC is notified of your annual pensionable pay for the previous financial year (1 April – 31 March).

Therefore, if you recently joined the Scheme, your pensionable pay will be zero until your employer submits its annual pay figures.

If you wish to use your current salary when using the Benefit Projectors, replace the pre-populated pay value in the pay data fields and input your amended salary figure.  If you are contemplating retiring within the next twelve months, please request an estimate from us by submitting a benefit request from the contact us section of My NILGOSC Pension Online or contact the NILGOSC administration team on 0345 3197 325.

Between April and June each year NILGOSC is notified of your annual pensionable pay figure for the previous year (1 April – 31 March).

Therefore, if you recently joined the Scheme, your pensionable pay will be zero until your employer submits your annual pay figures.

If you wish to use your current salary when using the Benefit Calculators, replace the pre-populated pay value in the pay data fields and input your amended salary figure. If you are contemplating retiring within the next twelve months, please request an estimate from us by submitting a benefit request from the contact us section of my NILGOSC Pension Online or contact the NILGOSC administration team on 0345 3197 325.

No. We do not hold current fund values for any AVCs. If you wish to have a benefit projection with your AVC value included please request an estimate from us by submitting a benefit request from the contact us section of My NILGOSC Pension Online or by contacting the NILGOSC administration team on 0345 3197 325.

No. If a pension sharing order debit has been applied to your record, this adjustment will not be reflected on the benefits shown on My NILGOSC Pension Online benefit calculators. Consequently the estimated benefits may be overstated. If this is applicable, please request an estimate from us by submitting a benefit request from the contact us section of My NILGOSC Pension Online or contacting the NILGOSC administration team on 0345 3197 325.

Scheme Pays are included in the voluntary retirement calculator, however they are not automatically included in the other calculators at this time.

Information from monthly payslips and P60 End of Year details can be printed off by selecting the applicable pay period and clicking the Print button on the page.

You can request further information and send queries by asking a question in the contact us section.

Alternatively you contact us by;

Post: Templeton House, 411 Holywood Road, Belfast, BT4 2LP
Tel: 0345 3197 325
E-mail:  info@nilgosc.org.uk

Only you can access your data through My NILGOSC Pension Online. It is therefore very important that you keep your login details safe and secure. If you think someone has obtained your login details, please change your password immediately and notify us on 0345 3197 325. For more information please refer to our Privacy Notice.