A member who has not yet left service or become a pensioner in respect of the whole of their benefits under the scheme.
Annual Allowance
You can pay up to 100% of your annual earnings into the GPPS or any other registered pension scheme in each tax year. If the value of the pension contributions paid by you and on your behalf to all registered pension schemes exceeds the annual allowance (£245,000 for 2009/10 tax year) in any year, there will be a tax charge on the excess. Any contributions or benefits built up above the annual allowance will currently be subject to tax at 40%.
Annuity
A contract with an insurance company which provides you with a series of payments in retirement. At retirement, you can use the savings that have accumulated in the GPPS to buy an annuity from an insurance company of your choice.
Deferred Member
An active member who leaves service before normal pension age without receiving a refund of contributions or a transfer or an immediate pension.
Earnings cap
The pensionable salary limit on which scheme contributions and pension benefits are based. For the 2009/10 and 2010/11 tax years it is £123,600 and is expected to increase each year in line with the Retail Prices Index (RPI). The earnings cap does not apply to members who joined the scheme before 1 June 1989.
Final pensionable salary
Your pensionable salary earned in the last year, calculated on a daily rate, before your pensionable service ends.
Full pension
The annual amount of pension immediately before death, as it would have been but for any commutation or levelling adjustment.
GPPS
The BBC Group Personal Pension Scheme.
Guaranteed minimum pension (GMP)
The minimum pension that the scheme must provide for pensionable service after 5 April 1978 and before 6 April 1997. It is broadly equivalent to the SERPS pension you would have earned if you had not been a member of the scheme.
On your death a GMP may be payable to your widow, widower or civil partner, and will usually be included within a dependant's pension.
Incapacity
A physical or mental impairment which means that, on the evidence of a doctor or other qualified person appointed by the BBC, the trustees are satisfied that you cannot carry out your normal occupation, and that it is likely permanently and substantially to impair your earning capacity.
Life assurance member
An employee who is not a contributing member of the scheme, but is covered for a lump sum on death in service.
Lifetime allowance (LTA)
This is a limit on the value of total pension benefits that you can built up tax efficiently during your lifetime. It is £1.75 million for the 2009/10 tax year and will rise to £1.8 million by 2010. When your Scheme pension comes into payment, its capital value (calculated by multiplying your initial annual pension by 20) plus any lump sum must be checked against the LTA.
Each time you take benefits from a scheme, you remaining LTA will be reduced. Benefits that exceed your remaining LTA will be subject to a one-off tax charge of 55%, if taken as a lump sum, or 25% if taken as a pension, in addition to income tax at marginal rate.
Nominated dependant
The nominated person accepted by the trustees as being financially dependant on you at the date of your death.
The trustees can reduce the pension if your nominated dependant is younger than you by more than 10 years. The trustees will decide the amount of any reduction after having consulted the scheme's actuary.
A nominated dependant's pension is reduced if there is a GMP payable to another person or while there are children's pensions in payment.
Non-pensionable earnings
Earnings on which you do not automatically pay pension contributions e.g. Unpredictability Allowances (UPA) or overtime.
Normal pension age
Age 60 for Old and New Benefits members, 65 for Career Average members.
Pensionable salary
Your basic pay, including any other earnings recognised by the BBC as pensionable, subject to the earnings cap. If you participate in Smart Pensions, your pensionable salary will be based on what your basic pay would be, but for participating in Smart Pensions.
Pensionable service
The number of years and days of active membership.
Qualifying children
Your natural (including any conceived but not yet born) and adopted children, and any that the trustees accept were financially dependent on you at the date of your death. Benefits are payable to your qualifying children up to age 18 or, at the trustees' discretion, up to age 23 while in full time education.
Qualifying civil partner
The person with whom you have entered into a civil partnership and with whom you are living at the date of your death. If the civil partnership is registered after leaving service, your partner will be treated as a qualifying civil partner only if the civil partnership was registered at least six months before your death.
In certain circumstances the trustees can reduce the pension paid in respect of your death in deferment or retirement if your civil partnership was entered into after leaving pensionable service.
Qualifying spouse
The person to whom you are married and with whom you are living at the date of your death. If you marry after leaving the BBC, your spouse will be treated as a qualifying spouse only if the marriage took place at least six months before your death.
In certain circumstances the trustees can reduce the pension paid in respect of your death in deferment or retirement if your marriage took place after leaving pensionable service.
Scale Pension
1/60th of your final pensionable salary for each year of pensionable service.
Smart Pensions
Your pension benefits are paid for partly by the BBC and partly by yourself through Smart Pensions.
Smart Pensions is simply a name for the way new members contribute to the BBC pension scheme. For existing members, contributions are currently deducted from gross pay and paid direct to the scheme. Members therefore enjoy tax relief on their contributions, but do not see any saving in National Insurance (NI) contributions.
Smart Pensions offers the same tax relief but also provides an opportunity for you and the BBC to save some NI contributions. The savings made by the BBC help meet the cost of your pension.
However, you will not be able to stop or reduce your Added Years or AVCs through smart pensions until 1 April each year unless you have a life event.
Full details on Smart Pensions.
State pension age
Currently 60 for women and 65 for men. It is to be equalised at 65 for both. The change will be phased in over a 10-year period starting in 2010.
The government intends increasing the state pension age from 65 to 68 between 2024 and 2046. More information on the state pension is available from the pension service line.
