Spring 2001
Local government edition
new national organisation has chosen WYPF to run the Local Government Pension Scheme for them. The Children and Family Court Advisory Support Service, or CAFCASS for short, is a new organization which comes into existence on 1 April 2001.
It is formed by the amalgamation of three existing bodies: the Family Court Welfare Group, Guardians ad Litem and the part of the Official Solicitor's Department that deals with cases related to children. CAFCASS will operate throughout the whole of England and Wales.
CAFCASS will be using the Local Government Pension Scheme to provide pension cover for their employees.
There's an LGPS administrator, like WYPF, in every county throughout the country, but CAFCASS were looking for just one administrator to run the LGPS for the whole of England and Wales.
From all the LGPS administrators from around the country, they chose WYPF.
It's rare for new organizations like CAFCASS to come along. So, we are very pleased they picked WYPF!
Pensions increase 3.3% this year (2001)
This year, the increase is 3.3%. As usual the increase is based on the rise in the cost-of-living in the year up to last September.
Your pension will be increased if you are over age 55 or you retired because of ill health. You'll get the increase too if your pension is a spouse's or a children's pension. The increase is paid from 9 April this year.
Some time ago we asked for your views about the possibility of advertising. We had a very positive response from you about this so we’ve been in discussion with several companies and we will shortly be sending you some information about products and services you may find interesting.
The products or services can’t be seen as being recommended by WYPF, but we are taking every care to make sure all advertising is entirely suitable. We would like to reassure you again that we will not give your name and address to any advertisers.
It's an often quoted statistic that 1 in 3 marriages now end in divorce. It seems to be a sad fact of life these days.
In the past, quite often divorce could leave one of the couple with very little income – particularly if the divorcing couple were already retired.
But new rules have recently been introduced for all UK pension schemes so that the pensions of couples can be shared if they get divorced. Both husband and wife get a share of the pension, so they each have a separate income after the divorce.
Pensions don't always have to be divided up though. A pension is just one part of the financial settlement that the courts look at as a divorce goes through.
Spring 2001
Local government edition