That Cabinet recommends to Council:

That the amended Employers Pensions Discretions as set out in Appendix 1, to the submitted report, which now include the Shared Cost Additional Voluntary Contribution Scheme be approved.

To encourage employees to save more for their pension and thereby the Council would pay less National Insurance and the employee would pay less in Tax and National Insurance contributions.

There are no other options under consideration.

The Cabinet’s recommendations will be considered at the Council meeting on 24 July 2025.

Under the current Local Government Pension Scheme Regulations, Torbay Council can exercise a range of pension discretionary policies which apply to its employees who are members of the scheme.  The current discretions were agreed at Council in February 2025.

There was a requirement to amend the current discretions to introduce a Shared Cost Additional Voluntary Contribution arrangement (SCAVC).  An employer can choose to contribute towards a member’s Additional Voluntary Contribution (AVC) via a shared cost arrangement (SCAVC) where an employee had elected to pay AVC’s by salary sacrifice.  The amount of these employer shared cost AVC’s would not exceed the amount of salary sacrificed by the employee.

At the meeting Councillor Tyerman proposed and Councillor Jackie Thomas seconded a motion that was agreed unanimously by the Cabinet, as set out above.

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