Your tax & P60 questions answered

New Scottish Rate Income Tax

New home for GMPF

Readers’ stories

SPRING 2016, ISSUE 21

grapevinepensions

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

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£ £

PREVIOUS EMPLOYMENT

PAY

TAX

Your April 2016 Payslip

£

YOUR NET PENSION (After deductions)

Tax

£

YOUR DEDUCTIONS

Taxable

£

YOUR GROSS PENSION (Before deductions)

NamePension No.

Nat. Ins. No.PAYE Ref.

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).

Please keep this certificate in a safe place 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. It also helps you check that we are

using the correct National Insurance number.

By law you are required to tell HM Revenue & Customs of any

income that is not fully taxed, even if you are not sent a Tax Return.

£ £

Tax Year Month Taxable Pay Tax Paid

to date to date

Name

Nat. Ins. No.Final Tax Code

PAYE Ref.

Pension No.

This is your P60 - Do not destroy

Messages this month

Look out for more information about

your pensions increase in the enclosed

Grapevine Newsletter.

Year Ending 5th April 2016 P60 Substitute (GMPF)

If you need to separate your payslip from your P60 you can tear along this dotted line

P60 End of Year Certificate for 2015 - 2016

£ £

THIS PENSION FUND PENSION

TAXRefunds are shown with a minus sign (-).Figures shown here should be for your Tax Return if you get one.

£ £

TOTAL PENSION/PAY FOR THE YEAR

PAY

TAX

£ £

PREVIOUS EMPLOYMENT

PAY

TAX

For tax queries 0300 200 3300

HM Revenue & Customs, quoting your National

Insurance number and PAYE reference 582/M5010.

For pension queries, 0161 301 7100

Greater Manchester Pension Fund, Concord Suite,

Manchester Road, Droylsden, Tameside, M43 6SF

GMPF is administered by

Your percentage of Standard Lifetime Allowance used is:

For more information on Lifetime Allowance please see

the enclosed Grapevine Newsletter or visit: www.gmpf.org.uk

%

Tax Code*

Your payment date:

YOUR GROSS PENSION: This is your pension this month before we take anything off for tax. See page 8 for more about tax in general.

If someone asks for your P60, you can tear it off, keeping the payslip part for yourself.

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 document is your P60 - your summary of tax and pension for the year up to 5 April 2016. You may need to present this, for example if you make a claim for Tax Credits, so please make sure you keep it!

Remember to keep P60 & payslip!

TAX CODE: HMRC decides your tax code - it tells us how much tax to take. If you think your tax code is wrong please contact HMRC.

LIFETIME ALLOWANCE: This is a limit on the total amount any of us can build up in pensions without penalty - it is £1.25 million for the 2015/16 tax year. This box shows what percentage of this is used up by your GMPF pension.

£ £

PREVIOUS EMPLOYMENT PAY TAX

Your April 2011 Payslip

£YOUR NET PENSION (After deductions)

Tax

£

YOUR DEDUCTIONS

Taxable

£

YOUR GROSS PENSION (Before deductions)Name

Pension No.

Nat. Ins. No.

PAYE Ref.

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).

Please keep this certificate in a safe place 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 you are not sent a Tax Return.

£ £

Tax Year Month Taxable Pay Tax Paid to date to date

Your payment date this month is 1st April 2011

Name Nat. Ins. No.

Tax Code

PAYE Ref.

Pension No.

This is your P60 - Do not throw away

Messages this month

Look out for more information about your pensions increase in the enclosed Grapevine Newsletter.

Year Ending 5th April 2011 P60 Substitute (GMPF)

If you need to separate your payslip from your P60 you can tear along this dotted line

P60 End of Year Certificate for 2010 - 2011

£ £

THIS PENSION FUND PENSION TAX

Refunds are shown with a minus sign (-).Figures shown here should be for your Tax Return if you get one.

£ £

TOTAL PENSION/PAY FOR THE YEAR PAY TAX

£ £

PREVIOUS EMPLOYMENT PAY TAX

For tax queries 0845 3000 627HM Revenue & Customs, quoting your National Insurance number and PAYE reference 582/M5010.

For pension queries, 0161 301 7100Greater Manchester Pension Fund, Concord Suite, Manchester Road, Droylsden, Tameside, M43 6SF

GMPF is administered by

Your percentage of Standard Lifetime Allowance used is:For more information on Lifetime Allowance please see the enclosed Grapevine Newsletter.

%

Tax Code

* Please note, any new tax codes apply from next month.

*

P60Payslip2011.indd 1 14/02/2011 16:41

FILLING IN A TAX RETURN? You will need to quote the figures shown in this section...

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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?

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£10

£10

Craft beersThese have become very fashionable.

Music streamingThis growing technology is taking over traditional ways of buying music.

E-cigarettesMore are more smokers are turning to ‘vaping’.

Sweet potatoesOn the rise in the nation’s kitchens.

HeadphonesBought by gamers, or as upgrades to the ones supplied with smartphones.

Smart phone accessoriesEverything from phone cases to speakers and chargers - the market is booming.

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.

In

Protein powderThis is used by more and more gym goers.

Computer gaming vouchers

Representing the explosion in online gaming.

Out

Negative inflation and your pensionIncreases 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...

Why high inflation is a problemOne of the great ‘safety nets’ with schemes like ours, is that pensions go up in line with prices. So if inflation

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.

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.

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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.

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Tax allowance up to £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 allowanceTo 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 taxThe 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...

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.

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0300 200 3300 Open 8am - 8pm, Mon-Fri, and 8am - 4pm Saturdays.

Please quote your National Insurance number and reference 582 M5010

www.hmrc.gov.ukText phone number for hearing & speech impaired members: 0300 200 3319

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.

Example based on ordinary allowanceSheila’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...

Your questions answered...What is the

notice of coding I’ve been sent?

What does my tax code

mean?

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.

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.

What if I think my

tax code is wrong?

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.

Scottish tax payers please see over

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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 answeredl How 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.

l What should I do if I think I shouldn’t be paying SRIT or I want to find out more? Please contact HMRC - all the details are shown on the main tax story on the previous page.

l What rate will SRIT be? 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.

New tax rules for Scotland

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Pensioners’ Forum a great successA 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.

Cllr Kieran Quinn

Peter Morris

Ged Dale

Euan MillerPaddy Dowdall

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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 allowanceThis 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 periodsThe 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 allowanceFor 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 allowanceThis 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.

Tax limits and your pension

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Do you do it online?

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 recordsl Tell us about any changes in your

home address, telephone number or email address

l Contact us with a direct queryl Check and print previous payslipsl Check and print your P60 (proof of

income).

How to get startedIf 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:

Just click the link and it will guide you through what to do. Happy clicking!

SHOPPING

PENSION

by GMPF

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Just to remind you that we now pay GMPF pensions on three different dates...

Pay day calendar

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

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 next banking day instead. For example May 1 is a Sunday, May 2 is a bank holiday, so we will pay you on Tues 3 May.

We pay on the 16th of the month for... l Probation service pensioners where neither of the

other two dates are 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 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

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.

Bank holidays & weekends

Bank holidays & weekends

Bank holidays & weekends

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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 wiseWe 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.

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Crunching the numbersAs 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...

MothercareMost 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!

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Auto traderGMPF 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.

PropertyWe 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

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Anything to declare? 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...

Claiming benefitsDon’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.

Keep us in the loopSometimes 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.

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For more information about the National Fraud Initiative, and how Tameside takes part in it, please see: www.tameside.gov.uk/fraud

Anything to declare? How data is sharedTo 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.

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.

New National Insurance database launchedAnother 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.

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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!

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!

Reader’s

story

I HEAR THERE’S A NEW TAX ON PANCAKES, CDs, AND PUNCTURES.....

YES, THAT’S RIGHT, THEY’RE CALLING IT THE FLAT RATE TAX!

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Just for

laughs

2222

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.

Go to www.gmpf.org.uk, click on the bank change form link, fill it in, sign it, and then post it to us,

Send us a signed letter,

Or call into our offices in person.

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!

Here’s how...

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 and make a payment to your old bank account which has already been closed. If this happens, your old bank will return the payment to us, and we will forward it to your new account.

If you change your bank account...

A close shaveJeffrey 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

to the kitchen floor, but gravity and my trousers had other ideas and my 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!

Reader’s story

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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?”

Reader’s story

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.

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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 forIt can be anything at all you think other Grapevine

readers might like to hear about, such as...

Tasty recipes

Travel ideasAnecdotes from your work days

HobbiesGardening hints & tips

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.

Funny stories

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.

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Prize quiz

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.

malcolm.tyrer@gmpf.org.uk

Q1

Q3

Q4

Q5

Q6

Q2

How much is the Lifetime Allowance for the 2015/16 tax year?

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?

What is GMPF’s pensioner online service called?

What is the name of the tracing bureau used by GMPF?

What is the name of the new office where GMPF is now based? (Incorrectly spelled entries will be disqualified!)

Your name:

Pension number:

Daytime phone:

Peter’s Greek odysseyGrapevine 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.

Reader’s story

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R E A D E R S

R E C I P E S

MethodPre 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.

Ingredients175g self raising flour150g sugarPinch of salt100ml sunflower oil100ml water2 eggs (separated)

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!

Gardening hints & tipsFoul 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!”

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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:

Or call our friendly helpline on:

www.gmpf.org.uk

0161 301 7100Or call in at our offices: GMPF, Guardsman Tony Downes House, 5 Manchester Rd, Droylsden, M43 6SF.