Firefighters 1992 scheme - Active

Additional pension benefits (APBs)

Additional Pension Benefits (“APBs”) are a form of contributions-based pension paid in addition to the main final salary FPS1992 pension. They are a method of ensuring that an element of pay, which is treated as pensionable but which may not be present at the end of a firefighter’s service, will nevertheless be recognised in respect of contributions paid.

APBs were first introduced to cater for the impact on pensionable pay of the phasing out of Long Service Increment (“LSI”). The removal of LSI affected the pension expectation of those firefighters who were receiving it. If you are entitled to a LSI APB this will already have been assessed and notified to you by the authority. The value as notified will continue to increase in line with Pensions Increase Orders. It will be paid to you when you become entitled to receive your main FPS1992 benefits. No further LSI APBs will be awarded. They were a one-off form of protection.

However, APBs remain available to cater for other elements of pay which may not be permanent and so not suitable for final salary benefits, e.g. Continual Professional Development payments and certain other allowances and payments that the authority, at their discretion, may allow to be treated as pensionable.

The way in which APBs work is that you pay basic pension contributions on the relevant element of pay, and the authority pays contributions at the employer’s contribution rate. The contributions which have been paid by you and the authority over the previous 12 months are totalled on every 1 July and the sum is then used to “buy” an amount of APB for that year by reference to factors provided by the Scheme Actuary. The amounts of APB at the end of each year are index-linked. They are totalled and paid to you as an additional pension when you become eligible to receive your main FPS1992 pension.