News for retired members
If you're already receiving your pension, this section has all the information you need to know.
Equalisation update
Regular newsletter readers will know that the pensions industry has been trying for a long time to comply with various court rulings around pension equalisation.
There are two equalisation issues affecting the Fund: Barber equalisation and GMP equalisation. This article explains what they are and what we’re doing to equalise pensions.
Barber equalisation
Pension schemes used to provide different normal retirement ages for men and women. This mirrored the way that the State Pension used to work, with an earlier retirement age for women.
In 1990, the European Court of Justice ruled that equal pay rules for men and women should also apply to pension schemes. They didn’t require schemes to make retrospective adjustments but ruled that from 17 May 1990, equalisation of retirement ages was required.
The period between this date and the date that individual schemes changed their rules to equalise retirement ages is known as ‘the Barber window’ (Barber being the surname of the person who brought the complaint to the courts). Many schemes (including the Fund) took steps to deal with this issue, but further court rulings continued to move the goalposts.
In our last update, we told you that the Trustee and its advisers had agreed a way forward to fix this problem. We’re pleased to report that we fully implemented Barber equalisation for pensioner members early in 2025, writing to everyone who was affected.
Guaranteed Minimum Pension equalisation (GMPe)
Most pensioner members of the Fund who joined before April 1997 (or receive a spouse’s or dependant’s pension in respect of a member who joined before April 1997) will have a Guaranteed Minimum Pension (GMP) as part of their entitlement. This was a result of being ‘contracted out’ of part of the State Pension system. Like the State Pension, GMPs were also not equalised.
After many years of uncertainty, the High Court ruled that GMPs earned between 17 May 1990 and 5 April 1997 also needed to be equalised.
We’re expecting to fully implement GMPe during 2026, and if your pension is affected, we’ll write to you directly with full details.
See your pension online
Now you’re receiving your pension, you can get everything you need in your member website account at www.rolls-roycepensions.com
Whether it’s downloading a payslip, checking your tax code, updating personal details or changing the bank your pension’s paid into, all of this can be done instantly online. And if you have to complete a tax return, or demonstrate proof of your pension income, everything you need is available in your account.
If you’ve not logged in for a while, we’ll ask you to confirm your personal details and update them if they’ve changed. We’ll prompt everyone to do this annually, as we don’t want to lose touch with any of you!
If you’ve registered before but have forgotten your pension number or password, just head to the login screen and follow the instructions to recover your account. And if you’ve not registered yet, our handy registration guide shows you how to do it.
Information about your pension payment
Your monthly pension payment arrives on the first working day of each month, except for January’s instalment, which we get to you just before Christmas.
Payments are in advance, so the payment you receive at the start of the month covers that month.
Although you can see your payslips online, we always post a payslip to your home address if your payment changes by more than £1. Generally, this happens when the pension we pay you increases or when HM Revenue and Customs changes your tax code.
We also post a payslip to everyone at the start of April as this doubles up as your P60 end-of-year certificate. The P60 summarises the total pension we’ve paid to you in the tax year 6 April – 5 April and shows how much income tax has been deducted.
You’ll need the information on your P60 when filling in a tax return, and you might need it when applying for a loan, mortgage or State benefits. If you mislay it, you can always download a copy from your member website account from the My P60 History page.
Pension increases
Most of our pensioners receive pension increases on 1 April each year. We publish them every March in the Updates section of the member website. You can see what your new pension will be by checking the My Pension & Increases page of your member website account shortly before your April pension payment.
Find out more in the 2025 pension increase guide.
Tax codes
HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) tells us what tax code we should apply to your pension. A tax code lets us know how much pension you can have before we have to start deducting tax.
You can see your past and current tax codes in your member website account on the My Tax Codes page.
If you’re not sure what your tax code means, you’re not alone. The Government’s MoneyHelper website can help you to understand what the combination of numbers and letters mean. By understanding your tax code, you can check that it’s correct and if it isn’t, take action to get it sorted.
If you have any questions or concerns about your tax code, you must speak to HMRC, as we can only change it when they tell us to. Visit the HMRC website to find out how you can contact them.
