What Category Of Scheme Member Are You?

MyCompanyPension.co.uk - Helping members of occupational pension schemes to better understand their benefits.

7th January 2009

What category of scheme member are you? If you are a member of an employment based pension scheme you will fall into a specific category of membership: Active, preserved or pensioner. As people change jobs on average every 6 years, it is possible that you may have further benefits arising from previous membership of an employer sponsored pension scheme. You could therefore fall into *more than one* of the above categories. Active Member We describe an active member of a pension scheme as someone who is continuing to build up further pension benefit in respect of service being completed. more... Preserved Member (also called a ‘deferred member’) We describe a preserved member as someone who has built up benefits in a pension scheme and who has: - ceased to be an active member, - is not receiving pension benefit, and - has not transferred those benefits to another pension arrangement. more... Pensioner Member We describe a pensioner member as someone who is in receipt of their pension benefit (other than some forms of ill-health). more… With effect from 6^th April 2006 new legislation allows schemes to permit employees reaching their pension scheme normal pension age (commonly referred to as Normal Retirement Date) to take flexible retirement. This will introduce a new category of scheme membership, which we refer to as Active-Pensioner.