Check your pension scheme member’s protectionprotected statusallowances

Overview

From 6 April 2024, the lifetime allowance was abolished.

Your pension members may still be able to apply for protectionprotected allowances from the 2016 reduction in thethe standard lifetime allowance.

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You’ll also need to make sure you give the right information to your members.

Protection before 2016 reduction

Before 2016 your members could hold one of the following protections:

• enhanced protection
• primary protection
• fixed protection
• individual protection 2014
• fixed protection 2014

Your members should give you the pension scheme administrator reference number for their protection and you’ll need to use this when testing their benefits.

Your members can find their reference number on their protection certificate or confirmation letter. Additionally, most members will be able to view it online usingthrough thetheir protectGovernment your lifetime allowance service.Gateway.

You may decide to ask your member for a copy of their protection certificate so you can:

• can confirm the value of their protected pension rights
• tell the member what percentage of the lifetime allowance they’ve used up

Protection from 2016 reduction

Your members will need to apply for a permanent protection notification number online.

The permanent protection notification number is in the format:

• FP16 followed by 10 digits and 1 letter, for fixed protection 2016 (for example FP161234567890A)
• IP16 followed by 10 digits and 1 letter, for individual protection 2016 (for example IP161234567890B)

The deadline to apply for Fixed Protection 2016 and Individual Protection 2016 is 5 April 2025.

Temporary reference numbers are no longer valid. If your member has one they’ll need to apply for a permanent protection notification number. The temporary reference number will be in the format:.

• AJ followed by 4 digits, for fixed protection (for example AJ1234)
• 4 digits followed by AJ, for individual protection (for example 1234AJ)

LifetimeProtected allowanceallowances scheme administrator look-up service

To check if your member has validprotected lifetimetheir allowanceallowances, protection, you can use the lifetimeprotected allowanceallowances scheme scheme administrator look-up service.

To use the look-up service, you’ll needneed:

• your member’s National Insurance number
• your member’s surname
• your member’s protection notification number
• your andmember’s theirpension scheme administrator reference.
  check reference number

YourIn membermost cases, your members can find these reference numbers inthrough theirtheir Government personal tax accountGateway, even if they did not apply for lifetime allowance protection online.