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Employer Knowledge Article

EPN745 - Added Pension and EPA deadlines

Reminder of the Added Pension deadline for the 2025/26 scheme year and notice of the limits and deadlines for buying Added Pension and EPA during the 2026/27 scheme year.

Audience:

  • HR managers
  • Pension leads
  • All staff responsible for handling added pension and Effective Pension Age (EPA) contracts

Summary:

This notice contains information about:

  • The deadline for buying Added Pension by lump sum in the current scheme year (2025/26).
  • Notice of the Added Pension/EPA limits and deadlines for the next scheme year (2026/27).
  • Guidance for employers on how to communicate the Added Pension and EPA limits and deadlines to staff.

Actions:

  • Familiarise yourself with the current limits and deadlines for buying Added Pension and EPA.
  • Communicate the current and subsequent Added Pension limits and deadlines to staff as soon as possible.
  • Notify your payroll provider of potential increases in Added Pension and changes to EPA instructions.

Timing:

  • Immediate

Detail:

  • Members of the alpha scheme can increase their pension by buying Added Pension – an extra amount of annual pension that when purchased will be combined with their Civil Service pension when they retire.
  • Members can also buy an EPA, or ‘Effective Pension Age’. EPA allows members to pay more on top of their normal alpha pension contributions to build up an EPA portion of pension. This portion can be paid either one, two or three years before Normal Pension Age, without any early payment reduction .
  • If a member has bought the maximum amount of alpha added pension , they cannot buy an EPA.
  • Added Penson can be bought by:
    1. a single, one-off lump sum payment; or
    2. regular monthly payments for an agreed period.
  • Members can still buy a lump sum amount of Added Pension for the current scheme year (2024/25). Depending on how it is bought, the deadlines for this are shown below.
    1. If paying by cheque: 13 January 2026
    2. If paying by payroll & BACS: 6 February 2026
  • Added Pension and EPA contracts for the 2026/27 scheme year will start from 1 April 2026.
  • The Added Pension & EPA page of the scheme website has been updated with information about the deadlines for buying Added Pension by Lump Sum for the current scheme year; and the limits and deadlines for buying Added Pension and EPA during the next scheme year.
  • Please ensure your staff are aware of limits and deadlines on the Added Pension & EPA page. To help you, you can share this page with your communications colleagues and members directly via email using the "Share this page" button.

Contacts

If you have a question about the distribution of EPNs or you need to receive them in a different format, please contact us.

Electronic copies of the Employers’ Pension Guide, all current EPNs, and forms are available on our website under ‘Employers’.

This notice is for employers and should not be issued to scheme members.

If members have questions about their pension, they can find information at www.civilservicepensionscheme.org.uk.

Historic EPNs

All EPNs prior to EPN635 have been archived. You can find these on the national archive website. You will need to scroll down to the EPN section to find the archived notices.