Grapevine Issue 21 in PDF format

pensions
grapevine
Your tax &
P60 questions
answered
New Scottish Rate
Income Tax
New home for
GMPF
Readers’ stories
SPRING 2016, ISSUE 21
Hello and welcome...
to this latest edition of Grapevine, your magazine from GMPF. And a special
welcome to you if this is the first copy of Grapevine you have received, because
you have only started drawing your pension fairly recently.
Speaking of new pensioners, I would personally like to wish good luck to
Executive Director of Pensions Peter Morris, who is about to join you merry band
of pensioners, after more than 25 years working for the pension fund.
As you will see inside, we have now moved into new premises, and it’s a really
great step forward having pensions administration, pensions accountancy and
investments all working under one roof.
As usual in this issue you will find a mix of stories - regular reminders about
things that affect us all, like tax, but also readers’ stories too. This time we had a
bumper crop of letters to choose from, so do keep those great stories rolling in.
Please do remember that in the same envelope as this Grapevine is your
P60 and payslip. Every year we get hundreds of people who throw them away
with the envelope, then have to phone us for a replacement. So please
remember to keep yours in a safe place. Also, the helpful
notes on the facing page should answer many of the
common questions we get asked.
And finally I’m pleased to report that the Fund has
had a solid year from an investment point of view,
and at the year end was valued at over £17 billion.
See the extract from our annual report to find out
more.
That’s all from me - I hope you enjoy this
issue.
All the best,
Ged Dale,
Assistant Executive Director,
Pensions Administration.
Greater Manchester Pension Fund is administered
by Tameside MBC and is part of the Local
Government Pension Scheme
Re m
em
P60 be r t o k
e
& pa
y s li p e p
!
Your P60 & payslip
Packaged with this Grapevine is your P60 and payslip - it’s an
important document, so please don’t lose it. The top half of the
document is your payslip for April, and shows details of your pension
from us before deductions, and the amount of tax we have taken.
The bottom half of the documentYour
is yourApril
P60 - your
summary
of tax and pension
2011
Payslip
for the year up to
5
April
2016.
You
may
need
to
present
this,
for
example
if you
(Before deductions)
Name
YOUR GROSS PENSION
make a claim forPension
Tax Credits,
so
please
make
sure
you
keep
it!
Taxable
No.
Nat. Ins. No.
YOUR GROSS PENSION:
This is
PAYE Ref.
your pension thisTaxmonth
before we
Code
*
take anything off for tax. See page 8
* Please note, any new tax codes
for more about tax
in general.
apply
from next month.
Name
Pensio
ril 201
YOUR DEDUCTIONS
6
n No.
Nat. In
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YOUR
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s. No.
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Your percentage of Standard
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Payslip
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%
Your pe
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For mo
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re inf
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DEDUCT
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For more information on Lifetime Allowance please see
£
TAX CODE: HMRC
decides your tax
%
the enclosed Grapevine Newsletter.
For tax
queriYOUR
(After deductions)
es
code - it tells us how much tax to take.
NET
PENSION
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This is your P60 - Do not throw away
P60 END OF YEAR CERTIFICATE
This certificate shows the total amount of pension for income
tax purposes that we have paid to you in the year. It also
gives details of the total income tax deducted by us (less any
refunds).
If someone asks for your P60, you can tear it
keeping
off,
the
Please keep
this payslip
certificate inpart
a safe for
placeyourself.
as you will need
it if you have to fill in a Tax Return, make a claim for Tax
Credits or to renew your claim.
By law you are required to tell HM Revenue & Customs of any
income that is not fully taxed, even if you3are not sent a Tax
Return.
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Figures shown here should be for your Tax Return if you get one.
TOTAL PENSION/PAY FOR THE YEAR
PAY
TAX
£
£
Year Ending 5th April 2011
P60 Substitute (GMPF)
Look out for more information about
your pensions increase in the enclosed
Grapevine Newsletter.
The
of inflation
As you will see from the article on the next page, the UK
economy has gone through a very rare phase lately, with
prices either staying the same or falling, and this has led to
negative inflation. So who works out what the level of inflation
is, and how do they measure it?
Inflation is measured by the ONS - the Government’s Office for National
Statistics - and they do it by measuring a so called ‘basket of goods’. The
basket of goods began life in 1947, as a sample of everyday items that could
be used to measure changes in the prices of goods and services. This was and still is - used by them to help calculate consumer price inflation.
UK consumers’ shopping habits have evolved over time, so the goods and
services in the basket have also changed to make sure it stays an accurate
reflection of what people are spending their money on. The range of
products bought by households has grown too, and so has the basket – from
around 150 goods and services in 1947 to 700 items today.
Not only is the basket vital for calculating the best possible measure of
inflation, it’s also an intriguing reflection of the nation’s changing culture, as
well as technological improvements. After all, how many people had heard
of music streaming subscriptions and e-cigarettes just a few years ago?
As you would expect, some items come and go... so the basket hasn’t
included corsets, boiled sweets, corned beef or chicken Kiev, for some time...
You can still buy these items - it’s just that not many people are! Whereas
some other items are ‘hardy perennials’ which pop up year after year - these
are mainly staple household goods and services such as bacon, milk, bread,
tea and petrol. These are all items which made
it into the first ever basket back in
1947, and are still there today.
Opposite is a selection of the
most interesting ins and
outs this year – are some
more of a surprise than
others?
4
Craft beers
These have
become very
fashionable.
In
Protein powder
This is used by
more and more
gym goers.
E-cigarettes
More are more
smokers are turning
to ‘vaping’.
£
Smart phone accessories
Everything from phone
cases to speakers and
chargers - the market is
booming.
Headphones
Bought by gamers,
or as upgrades to the
ones supplied with
smartphones.
£
10
Sweet potatoes
On the rise in the
nation’s kitchens.
5
10
Computer gaming
vouchers
Representing the
explosion in online
gaming.
Music streaming
This growing
technology is taking
over traditional ways of
buying music.
Out go yoghurt drinks,
which have faded in
popularity, and satnavs, as
more and more people use
their phones or their car’s
built in system.
Out
Negative inflation and your
pension
is running at say 10% a year, you get
what sounds like a big increase in
your pension, to keep pace with rising
prices. But in fact high inflation is the
worst possible thing for your pension...
that’s because when this happens,
prices are going up month after
month after month. This means your
pension is actually lagging behind,
until April or May when it jumps up ‘all
at once’ and finally catches up.
Increases in your pension are tied into
the consumer prices index (or CPI)
which is the Government’s preferred
measure of inflation. It’s the rate
recorded each September, which then
sets the rate of CPI that applies from
the following April. When inflation
was measured last September it was
actually recorded at -0.1% - in other
words there was negative inflation.
The rules are quite clear on how we
have to treat your LGPS pension
when there is either zero inflation or
negative inflation, as has happened.
The rules say in this case we must
leave the value of your pension
unchanged. So sorry, there is no
pensions increase this time round. But
strange though it may sound, this isn’t
all bad news...
And in times of negative inflation,
the opposite is true. For the past year,
prices have been falling, but your
pension has stayed at the same level
- so in fact there has been a small
increase in its buying power.
What might the future
hold?
We will have to wait and see how next
year’s figures pan out. Historically,
negative inflation is very rare in the
UK. But it’s true to say that during
2015 the UK hit a spell of either flat
or falling prices, so we don’t expect
a dramatic turnround in the rate of
inflation any time soon.
No increase this
time round due to
negative inflation.
Why high inflation is a
problem
One of the great ‘safety nets’ with
schemes like ours, is that pensions go
up in line with prices. So if inflation
6
We’ve moved!
Just a quick reminder that if you are
planning to call into our offices, or
send any mail to us, we have now
moved to new premises...
Our new home is still in Droylsden in fact it’s right across the road from
our old building, the Concord Suite.
The new building brings together
various teams that had been spread
across several locations to work
together under one roof. These areas
include:
l Pensions administration: the
people who look after your
pension records, and who pay out
pensions
l Pensions accountancy: the people
who handle the millions of pounds
worth of transactions we make
each year
l Pensions investments: the
people who oversee all of our
investments, to grow the ‘pot
of money’ from which we pay
pension benefits.
The building has been named after
a local soldier who died in Helmand
province, Afghanistan, in 2007
while serving with the 1st Battalion
Grenadier Guards – he was just 20.
The building was officially opened
by Cllr Kieran Quinn, Executive
Leader of Tameside Council and the
Fund’s Chair. At the moving opening
ceremony attended by members of
the armed forces and Tony Downes’
parents, Major Grant Barker of the
Grenadier Guards said...
The naming of the Greater
Manchester Pension Fund
headquarters as Guardsman Tony
Downes House is a wonderful tribute
to his memory, and is a source of
great pleasure and pride to both his
family and his regiment.
GMPF,
Guardsman Tony Downes House,
5 Manchester Rd,
Droylsden, M43 6SF.
Every page of our website
has a footer with a
clickable link: write or
call in. This gives details
of how to find us by public
transport or car, including
important postcode info
for satnav users.
7
Tax allowance
up to £11,000
Most people are allowed to receive a certain amount of
income in a tax year before they pay tax, and this is called
personal allowance. For the new tax year, the ordinary allowance
goes up to a nice round £11,000.
But no more age related allowances...
You may be wondering whether there are any age related
allowances for people born before a certain date. This used to be
the case, but the Government has deliberately left these unchanged for the
last few years, so that the standard personal allowance would eventually
catch them up, and that has now happened. So there are no more age
related allowances.
There are also some other allowances, such as blind person’s allowance, but
we haven’t space to cover that here.
And for any tax payers who earn over £100,000, then some of their allowance
will be clawed back.
New marriage allowance
To help out couples where one of them is a tax payer, but one isn’t, there is also
a relatively new marriage allowance. Here’s how it works... Let’s say your income
is less than the personal allowance of £11,000, you can transfer some of your
allowance to your husband, wife or civil partner, as long as they only pay tax at
the basic rate of 20%. The amount you can transfer is up to 10% of your personal
allowance. So for 2016/17, that means up to £1,100. Someone transferring the
full £1,100 of personal allowance would save their other half £220 in tax... not to
be sniffed out! As far as we can see, you can only apply for this online by visiting
www.gov.uk/marriage-allowance
Paying tax
The basic rate of tax for most types of income is 20%. The way you pay tax on
your pension from us is called PAYE (or pay as you earn) - just like when you
were at work. We pay pensions monthly, so this means you effectively get 1/12 of
the annual allowance each month. So if you are a 20% tax payer, the amount of
tax you pay is 20% of your income above the personal allowance each month.
There’s an example on the next page...
8
Example based on ordinary allowance
Sheila’s personal allowance is
£11,000 a year, so that means
(to the nearest pound) she can
receive £917 a month tax free.
She isn’t drawing her State
pension yet, but she gets a
pension from ourselves of £700,
and has a part time job which
brings in £300 a month...
Monthly income:
£1000
Personal allowance: £917
Difference:
£83
So she will pay tax on the £83 difference
– in her case at 20% - so that works out
at just over £16 a month in tax.
Your questions answered...
What is the
notice of
coding I’ve
been sent?
It’s just the taxman’s way of telling you what
your tax code is. You don’t need to do anything
with it, other than keep it for your own records.
In simple cases, you just take your tax free income for
the year and knock off the last digit. So if you have an
allowance of £11,000 and no adjustments, say for State
pension, your code would be 1100, followed by a letter.
This is usually L, but others are used such as M for someone
claiming marriage allowance as explained opposite.
What if I
think my
tax code is
wrong?
What does
my tax code
mean?
Please don’t tell us, as we cannot alter it! Only
HMRC can do this, so you need to speak to them as
shown below.
0300 200 3300
www.hmrc.gov.uk
Open 8am - 8pm, Mon-Fri,
and 8am - 4pm Saturdays.
Text phone number for hearing &
speech impaired members:
0300 200 3319
Please quote your National Insurance number and reference 582 M5010
Scottish tax payers please see over
9
New tax
rules for
Scotland
There is a fundamental change in the way that tax will be deducted from April
2016, it is the introduction of the Scottish Rate of Income Tax (SRIT). This will
affect you if you are one of our pensioners who either lives in Scotland or spends
most of their time in Scotland as defined by HMRC.
In a nutshell the changes mean you may pay a different rate of income tax than
the rest of the UK.
Who is a Scottish tax payer?
It’s not where you work, or who pays your pension that decides this - it’s
where you live. So if your main place of residence for all or most of the year is
Scotland, you are a Scottish tax payer.
HMRC should also be in touch with you if they think you’re affected by this.
And for this reason it’s important you keep HMRC up to date if you move
house, either in or out of Scotland, or just to a different location within
Scotland.
Your questions answered
lH
ow will I know if I’m paying Scottish tax (SRIT)?
As covered earlier, your tax code has a letter on the end... but if you’re paying
SRIT it will also have an S in front of it.
hat should I do if I think I shouldn’t be paying SRIT or I want to find
lW
out more?
Please contact HMRC - all the details are shown on the main tax story on the
previous page.
hat rate will SRIT be?
lW
Initially this has been set the same as the rest of the UK, so basic rate is 20%. It’s
possible that going forward, the actual rates, or the bands applying to them
could differ in Scotland.
10
Pensioners’
Forum a great
success
A big thank you for everyone who
turned up to the pensioners’ forum last
October, and helped to make it a very
successful day. Councillor Kieran Quinn opened
the event by welcoming guests and talking
about the challenges facing pension funds in
the present economic climate.
Ged Dale gave his usual witty round up of the
year, and Executive Director of Pensions Peter
Morris ran through the finances, together with
Assistant Directors Paddy Dowdall and Euan Miller.
To end on a lighter note we finished with a talk
from Martin Hole, from Capital (one of our fund
managers) who was very entertaining.
Top and tailing the conference was a chance for guests to meet up
with old friends, and visit various exhibition stands, such as Marie Curie.
Remember, the forum is held every other year, so hopefully we’ll see you at
the next one in October 2017. Next year’s Grapevine will carry further details.
Ged Dale
Peter Morris
Cllr Kieran Quinn
Paddy Dowdall
11
Euan Miller
Tax limits
and your
pension
This is a reminder about two key limits set by the HMRC which can affect
pensions - the annual allowance and the lifetime allowance. As a pensioner,
you are unlikely to be affected by these, but just in case you are, here are the
headline figures for this year.
Annual allowance
This is a limit on how much your pension can grow each year without
penalty, so it’s only really an issue for people who are still paying in to a
pension, and whose pension pot grows significantly, for example following a
promotion.
Changes to pension input periods
The actual period your pension is measured over to assess its growth against
the annual allowance is known as the pension input period (PIP). This will be
aligned to the tax year from 2016, which actually means that benefits will
have to be calculated for two pension input periods... a pre alignment PIP
of 1 April 2015 to 8 July 2015 and a post alignment PIP of 9 July 2015 to 5
April 2016. Don’t worry, this change may only affect you if you retired in the
2015/16 PIP.
Tapered allowance
For 2016/17, annual allowance stays at the same level of £40,000, but with a
reduced allowance for the best paid members. As this only affects people with
income of £110,000 or more, it’s unlikely to trouble too many pensioners!
Lifetime allowance
This is a limit on the amount of pension savings you can build up over your
life that benefits from tax relief. Your pension savings with GMPF will have
been tested by us against the lifetime allowance when you first started to
draw them. So as long as all of your pension benefits are already in payment,
and you have no intention of starting a new pension, you do not need to
worry about the lifetime allowance. For 2016/17, lifetime allowance falls to
£1 million from 6 April 2016. It is then due to go up from April 2018 in line
with prices.
12
Do you do
it online?
SHOPPI
NG
PE
NS
IO
N
How to get started
These days we can do all sorts of
things online - everything from
ordering groceries, to booking
holidays and sorting out our bank
accounts. So did you know we also
have an online service here at GMPF?
It’s called My pension by GMPF and it
lets you do various things including:
l See a simplified version of your
pension records
l Tell us about any changes in your
home address, telephone number
or email address
l Contact us with a direct query
l Check and print previous payslips
l Check and print your P60 (proof of
income).
If you want to use the new service,
you will need to register. To do this
simply go to our website at
www.gmpf.org.uk.
On the homepage there’s a link on
the right hand side which looks like
this:
by GMPF
Just click the link and it
will guide you through what to do.
Happy clicking!
13
Pay day calendar
Just to remind you that we now pay GMPF pensions on three
different dates...
We pay on the first traditional banking day of the
month for...
l Anyone who was already on pension with GMPF
before January 2012, and
Probation service pensioners where this is the same as
l
or close to their old paydate.
If this falls on a bank holiday or weekend, we will pay
Bank
you on the next banking day instead. For example
holidays &
May 1 is a Sunday, May 2 is a bank holiday, so we will
weekends
pay you on Tues 3 May.
We pay on the 16th of the month for...
Probation service pensioners where neither of the
l
other two dates are close to their old
paydate.
Bank
If this falls on a bank holiday or weekend,
holidays &
we will pay you on the previous banking day
weekends
instead. For example 16 July is a Saturday, so
we will pay you on Friday 15 July.
We pay on the last traditional banking day of the
month for...
l Anyone whose first pension payment with GMPF was
January 2012 or later, and
Bank
holidays &
weekends
l Probation service pensioners where this is the same as
or close to their old paydate.
If this falls on a bank holiday or weekend, we will pay
you on the previous banking day instead. For example
31 July is a Sunday, so we will pay you on Friday 29 July.
14
When can I expect a payslip?
Remember generally we won’t send you a payslip each time you’re
paid. But here are the times when we will send you one...
We always send out a payslip when someone first retires,
then, you will always get one for April (which
doubles as a P60) and then one for May, with
this being the first month that includes
in full, the new rate of pensions
increase if there has been one.
Apart from that we only
produce a payslip when your
monthly pension changes by £5 or
more after deductions.
By the way we now have a new style of payslip... the
layout is very much like the old ones, but it’s a flat sheet
of A4 paper, rather than a ‘folded tear off’ style.
The new production method is hopefully more user friendly, and is also
even more secure.
Worldly wise
We pay pensions all over the world everywhere from Stockholm to Sardinia and
Santorini to Sydney! If you live overseas and
get a pension from us paid into your overseas
account, remember we now do this through
Western Union. This brings several benefits:
l There is no charge for the transaction
l They use their own payments network so
pensions should normally be paid around
one day after the normal UK paydate
l There are preferential exchange rates.
15
Crunching the
numbers
As you probably know, each year GMPF invests
in all kinds of areas, to grow the pot of money that
we use to pay your benefits. You can get the full run down on
these in our 2015 annual report & accounts, which is published
digitally on our website, but we have included a brief summary
here...
In his introduction, the Chair comments that GMPF has had a successful
year and achieved an overall investment return of 11.7%. This has helped
maintain a funding level amongst the best funded of LGPS funds which
means employer contribution rates are, on average, at the lower end of the
range. Over the 12 months, the value of GMPF’s assets grew by £4.3 billion to
£17.6 billion. Part of this growth also came from us becoming the LGPS fund
for all Probation members in England & Wales.
Here’s a little more about some of our investments...
Mothercare
Most of our money is held in stocks &
shares in UK and overseas companies,
and Mothercare is an example of one
of them. This specialist retailer is best
known for its range of products for
mothers-to-be, babies and young
children.
It also owns the well known high
street brand Early Learning Centre.
Through its high street stores, its
online business, and its catalogue
mail order operations, the Group has customers all over the
UK and in more than 60 countries worldwide. It has also launched a
social networking site aimed at new parents, which is called (rather
appropriately) Gurgle.com!
16
Auto trader
GMPF invests a smaller amount in
something called private equity - a
little like the folks on Dragon’s Den
who invest in private companies,
through things like management
buy outs. We handle this type of
investment through specialist
partners such as Apax, and
through them we invested in Auto
Trader.
From humble beginnings in 1977 as a magazine, the company
has grown to become the UK’s largest digital automotive marketplace,
and can proudly claim that 80% of UK car dealers advertise with them.
Property
We also invest in property - most of it on a nationwide basis through an
investment manager called LaSalle. We also have a local property arm
called GMPVF, and it recently completed a flagship project, called
Number One St Peters Square.
This high profile office is directly opposite Manchester’s Central Library,
and it has already been let to various tenants including accountancy firm
KPMG, and law firms DLA Piper and Addleshaws.
Get the full report here: www.gmpf.org.uk/publications/annualreport.htm
17
Anything to
Don’t forget, there are many occasions
when you have to declare that you
receive a pension from us. And it’s
important to make sure that no-one
wrongly claims your pension after
you’ve gone. So you have a part to play, and we
may also share some of your data with other authorities,
as this article explains...
Keep us in the loop
Claiming benefits
Sometimes one of our pensioners
dies and whoever is looking
after their affairs fails to tell us,
meaning we carry on paying
the pension when we shouldn’t.
Normally this is a genuine error,
and quite understandable at the
time of someone’s death. But do
please help us avoid cases like
this by discussing the issue with
whoever is going to look after
your affairs after your death.
Please tell them that they should
let us know as soon as possible
when you die, and they can do
this simply by phoning us on
0161 301 7100. That way we
can stop your pension before
any wrong payments have been
made, and of course put into
place any new pensions which
are due, such as a pension for a
dependant.
Don’t forget, if you claim any sort
of benefit, for example, housing
benefit, you must tell them that
you draw a pension from us, in
case its value has to be taken into
account. If you don’t do this, the
authorities may treat it as a form
of fraud.
18
declare?
How data is shared
Don’t take offence...
From time to time we send our
pensioners something called a Life
Certificate. Please don’t be offended
if you get one - there’s no delicate
way of putting this... it’s basically our
way of asking you to confirm that
you are still alive! So if you get one
of these from us, please do fill it in,
so that we can carry on paying your
pension without any problem.
To pick up any overpayments whether accidental or otherwise we take part in the National Fraud
Initiative, which cross checks the
records from pension schemes
like ours with the Department for
Work & Pensions’ database. This
picks up cases of fraudulent claims
which are then investigated further,
sometimes in conjunction with the
Police.
We also use a service called Faraday
Tracing Bureau, which runs a check
each month against the General
Register Office’s records. They then
pass on to us the names of members
who may have passed away without
us being aware.
We also participate
in something called
Tell us Once. This
means when someone
registers a death, they
can opt to have the details passed
on to the DWP, and other council
departments such as council tax,
and ourselves at GMPF.
New National Insurance
database launched
Another form of data sharing is a
new National Insurance database,
which local government funds like
us are participating in. This only
needs concern you if you have
multiple local government pensions,
or you still pay into the scheme as
well as drawing a pension from us.
It is purely to address a new feature
of the scheme since 2014 which
says that if a member dies and they
have multiple memberships, in
many cases there should only be
one lump sum life cover payment the one from the membership that
generates the largest amount. So
the Local Government Association
has set up this system to help funds
avoid any incorrect duplication of
lump sums.
For more information about the
National Fraud Initiative, and
how Tameside takes part in it,
please see: www.tameside.gov.
uk/fraud
19
Working again?
If you get another job with any
employer who offers membership
of the LGPS then you must tell us whether or not you join the Scheme
again. In some cases, working for
this type of employer will affect
your pension.
Let us know if you move house!
You must let us know if you’re moving house, or if
this newsletter didn’t come to the right address.
You can do this by phone, email, post or in
person at our offices.
PLEASE NOTE
If we get
undelivered mail
sent back to us, we will
assume you are
‘no longer around’ and
we will stop your
pension!
20
er’s
Read ry
sto
No one makes a mug
out of Ray!
We’ve had a great story from Ray Allen, a retired
Probation Officer, who explains why he always
avoids drinking tea from a mug....
I joined Liverpool Probation Service back in April 1972,
at the tender age of 24, but thinking I knew it all! I was
based in an inner city office, and was told that the local
residents were generally warm hearted and generous, and that
if you were visiting their home, they would always offer you a cup of tea. I
was also told that you should never refuse the cup of tea – no matter how
many you had already drunk that day – as it would cause great offence.
Armed with this invaluable knowledge, I started making home
visits. One day I visited an elderly gentleman, who offered
the usual cuppa. I had already had six that day, but bearing
in mind what I’d been told, I reluctantly accepted his offer. I
then watched in horror as he proceeded to put down a mug
in front of me, remove his dentures from it, then pour out my
tea, which I had to drink as if nothing had happened! To this day I
have an aversion to drinking tea from a mug!
If you read this Ray, please give Grapevine a call with your contact details to
claim your prize!
I HEAR THERE’S
A NEW TAX
ON PANCAKES,
CDs, AND
PUNCTURES.....
YES, THAT’S
RIGHT, THEY’RE
CALLING IT THE
FLAT RATE TAX!
Just
for
laughs
21
If you change your
bank account...
Please make sure you tell us if
you want your pension paying into a
different bank account as your bank or
building society won’t do!
To allow enough time to make
the changes, please let us have
the new details three weeks
before your next payday. If you
don’t tell us in time, we may try
Here’s how...
Go to www.gmpf.org.uk, click on and make a payment to your old
the bank change form link, fill it in, bank account which has already
been closed. If this happens, your
sign it, and then post it to us,
old bank will return the payment
Send us a signed letter,
to us, and we will forward it to
your new account.
Or call into our offices in person.



If you live abroad you will need a different bank change form please go to the Retiring Abroad page on our website and select your
country from the list to download the correct form.
A close shave
to the kitchen floor,
but gravity and my
trousers had other
Reader’s
ideas and my
story
trousers ended up
around my ankles
rapidly followed by my underpants.
My wife was so busy laughing, she
couldn’t help me back onto the
ladder, and the worst part was, I was
level with the kitchen window!
Jeffrey Mangnall from Bolton
writes in with a close shave
that had the neighbours’
curtains twitching!
Whilst fitting a new false ceiling
in our kitchen I had my head and
shoulders between the joists when
the stepladder slipped. I held on to
the joists which stopped me falling
22
Don’t put your foot in it!
A chance walk through the office one lunch time had
Grapevine reader Angela Heathcote chuckling. She says:
I worked for Tameside during the 1990s, working for the
department that arranged home helps for people.
Even back then budgets were tight, so we had to look
at each case carefully, and assess them on a “need not
want” basis.
Walking through the office one lunch time I overheard a
phone conversation between one of my colleagues and
an irate customer who was demanding that we send
round a home help immediately to help her prepare
her lunch. My colleague politely explained that this
wouldn’t be possible, and I heard the voice on the other
end of the phone shout “Have you any idea how hard it is to cut
bread with a wooden leg?”
Reade
r
story ’s
Major overhaul of State
pensions - will you be affected?
There’s a big shake up in State pensions heading our way, but many people
already on pension won’t be affected. People in schemes like ours are contracted
out of the additional State pension (this used to be called SERPS, and many
people still call it this). So they haven’t paid for, or built up, this part of the State
pension.
As part of the old contracting out rules, some members who retired way back
have something called a GMP - a guaranteed minimum pension. This is a
guaranteed level that their pension from us has to reach, and in those cases the
State actually pays part of any annual increase in the pension from us.
Contracting out is ending in April, so if you will reach State pension age after
5 April 2016 and have a GMP, there may be a change in how any future increases
to your pension are paid. At time of writing we are waiting for further details
from the Government, and we will let you know once we know more.
23
Write in & win!
As you might have noticed we’ve changed
our logo to this simple “GMPF
nestegg”, so our prize
featuring the new logo is
this stylish three in one
pen. You can use it as an
ordinary Biro, as a tiny
torch, or as a stylus which
will work with most iPad type
devices or smart phones.
The first way of winning one of these exclusive GMPF
pens is to send us in a story - and if we print it in next
year’s issue, you win.
What we’re looking for
It can be anything at all you think other Grapevine
readers might like to hear about, such as...
Ho
b
bie
Funny
stories
s
Gardening
hints & tips
Tasty
recipes
Anecdotes from
your work days
Travel
ideas
Or if you haven’t got a story to pass on, why not have a go at our prize quiz,
which this year features questions based around articles in this issue.
24
Prize quiz
Q1
How much is the Lifetime Allowance for the 2015/16 tax year?
Q2
What is the name of the new office where GMPF is now based?
(Incorrectly spelled entries will be disqualified!)
Q3
Name any of the tenants of the office block we have built
called Number One St Peters Square.
Where is this distinctive row of buildings?
Q4
Q5
Q6
What is GMPF’s pensioner online service
called?
What is the name of the tracing bureau used by GMPF?
Your name:
Pension number:
Daytime phone:
Please send your Grapevine story ideas or your quiz entries by post or email to:
Communications Team, GMPF,
Guardsman Tony Downes House, 5 Manchester Rd,
Droylsden, M43 6SF.
[email protected]
25
Peter’s Greek odyssey
Grapevine readers Peter & Chris Lenihan have written a book
about their adventure of a lifetime, relocating to beautiful
Parga in Greece.
In 2006, after a lot of debate, we decided to retire abroad... so we sold
up and moved to Parga, in Greece - a bustling holiday resort in the
summer and a sleepy fishing village in the winter.
We left Heywood in August of that year, having sold almost everything
we owned, packed what little we had left into our car, and hit the road
on the first leg of our epic journey.
After crossing the Channel, we took a leisurely but scary drive across
France and Italy, took a cruise ferry from Venice to Igoumenitsa in
Greece and arrived in Parga in early September. We’re still here!
Were we brave or totally stupid? Your readers can make their own
minds up as we wrote a book about our exploits. It’s published
on Amazon Kindle and is called Always getting lost. A One way Trip
to Greece by Peter and Chris Lenihan. It costs £2.15 or is free to
subscribers to Kindle Unlimited.
As you can see from the photo Peter sent in, Parga really is a beautiful
place. If you want to find out more about Peter & Chris’s adventure,
you can read the first 10 pages for free on Amazon.
r’s
Reade
y
stor
26
R
E
A D
R E C
E
R
P E
I
S
S
Do you fancy yourself as a star baker, or are you plagued by a
soggy bottom? Well we’ve had a recipe from Margaret Leather
from Bolton which sounds too good to be true...
She calls it the sponge mix that never fails!
Ingredients
175g self raising flour
150g sugar
Pinch of salt
100ml sunflower oil
100ml water
2 eggs (separated)
Method
Pre heat the oven to 180° electric (or gas
mark 4).
Sieve the flour into a large bowl, and add
the sugar and salt. Next pour in the oil
and water, and add the egg yolks and mix
thoroughly.
If you want to add any extra ingredients,
such as cocoa powder, lemon zest, flaked
almonds, or whatever, do that now.
Finally beat the egg whites until firm (but
not as stiff as a meringue), and fold into the
rest of the mixture.
Pour the mixture into two prepared
sandwich tins, and bake for 15-20 minutes.
Foul play
Graham Boswell writes in with this handy hint to
stop cats and dogs fouling your garden. He says: “Half
fill a clear plastic bottle with water, and lie it down in the
middle of your lawn. The animals see their reflection and it
scares them away!”
27
Gardening
hints & tips
Can we help you?
Here are the ways you
can find out more or
get in touch with us.
If you do contact us,
please quote your
National Insurance
number.
Please let us know if
you move house or if
this didn’t come to the
right address...
Visit our website to find out more or to
contact us by email:
www.gmpf.org.uk
Or call our friendly helpline on:
0161 301 7100
Or call in at our offices:
GMPF, Guardsman Tony Downes House,
5 Manchester Rd, Droylsden, M43 6SF.