When you take your pension, you will be able to give up some of it for lump sum, up to a certain limit. For every £1 of pension you give up you will get £12 of tax free lump sum. Use this calculator to check how much lump sum you can take and how this affects your pension.
When you take your pension your pension fund will ask you if you want to give up some of your pension for lump sum. The maximum tax-free lump sum is generally 25% of the capital value of your pension benefits.
AVC funds
If you have paid Additional Voluntary Contributions (AVCs), you will be able to take some or all of your AVC fund as a tax-free lump sum when you take your LGPS pension. You may not want to use all your AVC in this way. You could use all or part of your AVC fund to provide a regular monthly income. See Taking your pension and paying extra - This link opens in a new browser window to find out about the different ways you can use your AVC fund.
How this tool works
Enter the value of your pension and any automatic lump sum at the date you want to take them. You will only have an automatic lump sum if you were a member of the LGPS before 1 April 2009. Your annual benefit statement will show the value of your pension benefits at 31 March in the current year; it may also provide an estimate at your normal pension age.
If you have an AVC fund, enter the amount that you want to take as a lump sum. You may be able to take the whole AVC fund as a lump sum. This would reduce how much of your LGPS pension you could give up for a lump sum.
If your AVC fund is too big to take it all as a lump sum, you would have to use the rest of the fund in a different way. See Taking your pension and paying extra - This link opens in a new browser window to find out more about your options. You would not be able to give up any of your LGPS pension to provide a lump sum.
Then choose what percentage of your benefits you would like to take as a tax-free lump sum.