Pensioners

I am a member of APS:

• If you have a single pension entitlement with us, your pension reference number will usually be your six-digit BA staff number preceded by “1”, for example if your staff number is 097132, your pension reference would usually be 1097132.

I am a spouse/partner or dependent of a member of APS

• If you are receiving a single pension entitlement from us, your pension reference number will usually be your spouse or partner’s six-digit BA staff number preceded by a “2”, “3” or “4”.

You can find your pension reference number at the top of any letter or statement you have received from BA Pensions.

To help us to give you the best possible service when calling the BA Pensions team, we ask you to enter your pension reference number. This ensures that we’ll have your pension records ready as soon as you are put through to one of the team.

Please let us know as soon as possible if you change your address. If we lose touch with you we will usually suspend payment of your pension until we can confirm your correct address.

If you have registered for Online Communications you can now inform us of address changes online rather than in the post. Simply login to Mybapension online and click on 'Change of address' in the 'Your e-forms' panel on the home page of 'Your benefits online'. If you have not registered for online communications you can do so at any time by clicking on 'register' at the top of the screen.

Address changes can also be accepted in writing with a signature (our address is on the Contact us page). Please quote your pension number (which is the same as your old BA staff number) in all correspondence. For security reasons address changes cannot be accepted by email.

Your pension is due to be paid on the last day of each month. However, we process the payments ahead of time and usually the pension will reach your account a day before the end of the month in which it is due (if the last day of the month falls on a weekend, we usually aim for the payment to reach your account by the Friday before). In December, we aim to have the payment with you before Christmas. You can find the latest information on pension payment dates here.

We add increases, as defined in the Scheme rules, in April every year from the date you left the Scheme. The increases are usually in line with the rate specified within the Government’s Pensions Increase (Review) Orders. The first year’s increase is proportioned according to the date you left the Scheme.

Your pension can be made up of different elements – some of which are increased by us, some by the Department for Work & Pensions and others may not increase in payment at all. The different elements that make up your pension will depend on when you worked for British Airways, which Scheme you were in and what pension options you took during your working life and at retirement.

The APS Trustee also has a power to pay increases on top of the standard Scheme increases if after taking professional advice they agree this is appropriate.

Older parts of the Scheme, such as APS Part 5, may not qualify for annual increases.

However, any portion of your pension earned after 5 April 2005 will normally receive increases in April each year as set out in the statutory revaluation orders. The increases will be limited to up to a maximum of 2.5% a year.

If you have a small pension currently around £500 a year or less and you are a man aged at least 65 or a woman aged at least 60 you can elect to exchange your pension to a one-off cash lump sum. If your pension does not include a Guaranteed Minimum Pension (GMP) entitlement, you can exchange it for a one-off lump sum at any time after age 55.

Increases on your AVC annuity will depend on the type of annuity you chose when you started drawing your AVCs. AVC annuities from BA Pensions can be fixed-rate (no increases in payment) or increasing at a rate of 5% each year.

The level pension arrangement is aimed to provide a more even pension income throughout retirement. It provided an extra amount of pension from the date pension payments first started up to State Pension Age (SPA). At SPA, the extra pension stopped and the basic BA pension payments were also reduced by an additional amount. At the same time the basic State Pension started to be paid, thereby replacing some, or all, of the reduction. The reduction in Scheme pension at SPA continues for the rest of the pensioner’s lifetime.

This arrangement has no direct connection with the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and under present Government rules does not affect State Pensions in any way.

The level adjustments are ignored when your pension increases are worked out. Therefore, if you have not yet reached SPA, you do not get any increase on the extra pension you are receiving. If you have reached SPA, the increase is worked out on the pension you would have been getting if you had never taken a level pension.

The level pension arrangement is no longer available under the Scheme. Level pensions already in payment cannot be altered or cancelled under any circumstances.

If you "Crystallised" your pension (this is where normal pension contributions are stopped before actual retirement, so that the pension is made up of two portions):

If you elected to receive a non-increasing (or partly non-increasing if you retired after 31 March 1997) additional (uplift) element, this portion does not receive any pension increases each year and remains fixed throughout retirement. Increases will only apply to the pension you earned before your contributions stopped and any extra pension relating to service after 31 March 1997. If instead you elected to receive an increasing additional (uplift) pension, your whole pension will receive increases in payment.

You can start, stop or change charitable donations directly from your pension at any time by visiting our Pension Giving microsite and completing the online donor form.

If you need help to complete the online donation form, use the online live chat facility during office hours. Please note any message received after office hours will be replied to by 10am on the next working day.

If you have a question about a specific donation you have made, please contact the team at Charitable Giving on 01822 611 180.

We provide a P60 certificate every year, usually together with your annual pension increase letter. If you have registered to receive your communications from us online, you can find a copy of your latest P60 certificate in the secure area of this website (you will need to log in). Alternatively, if you have opted out of online communications, you can call our Customer Service Team. We will send you a copy of your P60 certificate (usually within 10 working days). You can register for online communications at any time. If you have registered but forgotten your password you can reset your password following the 'Forgotten your password' process.

No. We will provide a payslip in respect of your first payment. After that we will provide a payslip only when the net amount of the payment (the amount of the payment you receive after any tax and other deductions that apply have been taken) changes by £1 or more. Payslips are provided in the secure area of this website (you will need to log in) unless you have opted out of online communications, in which case one will be posted to you if it is generated.

Once your BA pension is being paid to you, it is classed as taxable income and you will usually have to pay Income Tax on it under the Pay As You Earn (PAYE) system.

You will pay tax on any income above your tax-free personal allowance (this is set by the Government and is how much taxable income you can receive before you start paying Income Tax).

How much Income Tax you pay depends on the tax rate that applies to you (tax rates are also set by the Tax Office).

Your income includes:

• company pensions (such as your BA pension)
• the State Pension
• earnings from employment or self-employment
• any taxable benefits you might get
• any other income, money from investments, property, savings

When we start to pay your BA pension to you, until HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) tells us the correct tax code to apply to your pension, we will tax it using the UK basic personal allowance (if you opted out of the Scheme in order to draw your pension, we must use a tax code of 0T). We automatically ask HMRC for a tax code as soon as your pension payments start. The tax office will then send us notification of the correct tax code to use (you should also receive a copy of your tax code).

We must use the tax code the tax office gives us and we cannot adjust it unless the tax office tells us to, so if you have any questions about your tax code you should contact HMRC directly.

No. National Insurance contributions (NICs) cannot be deducted from your pension. If you think you have not paid enough National Insurance contributions to receive the full State Pension you can request a copy of your NI record or find out about paying voluntary NICs at www.gov.uk.

Once you begin drawing your pension it is paid for the rest of your lifetime.

If you retire from BA because of a medical incapacity and you are under your Normal Retirement Age, payment of your ill health pension will be reviewed regularly. The Trustee can vary, suspend or revoke (cancel) payments in certain circumstances. The Trustee will ask for evidence of your continuing incapacity from time to time and/or suitable evidence of any earnings you may be receiving whilst also receiving an ill health pension. For further information please refer to the 'What if I fall ill section.

To prevent any delay in receiving your pension, please let us know as soon as possible if you want to change where your pension is paid to (for example: if you advise us of a change of bank account before the 10th of June we will normally be able to change your records ready for the pension payment due at the end of June. Changes received after the 10th of the month may not apply until the following month’s payment).

When changing the details for your pension payments, you must tell us in writing for security reasons. You can download a payment instruction form from this website [ Payment instruction forms ]. This page includes forms for most overseas countries as well as the form for UK bank accounts. Simply print and fill out the form and then send it to BA Pensions (our address is on the ‘Contact us’ page). Please quote your pension number (which is the same as your old BA staff number) in all correspondence.

You can choose to have your pension paid to a UK bank account or anywhere overseas. Overseas payments are sent by our bankers (Bank of New York Mellon) and are automatically converted to the local currency of the bank receiving the payment. Your pension is converted to local currency earlier in the month when we instruct our bank to make payment to your overseas account. Please note you cannot receive pension payments in Sterling outside of the UK. We cannot pay pensions in cash or by cheque.

Many countries have their own banking systems and need different specific information to process your pension payments. We have separate forms for each country. If you wish to update your banking information, please print and complete the relevant payment instruction form. 

If you are living outside the UK when we first start paying your pension, we will need to use an emergency tax code for your pension payments until HM Revenue and Customs confirms the tax code we should use. While you are on an emergency tax code, you will get the UK basic personal allowance. If you believe that your pension should not be taxed in the UK, you should contact:

PAYE
HMRC
BX9 1AS
UK
Quote reference 846/BA52

Phone: 0300 200 3300

Your pension can only be paid into a bank account which bears your name unless another person has Power of Attorney over your affairs. This can be a bank or building society which is solely in your name, a joint account or any account on which you are a named account holder. We cannot pay pensions in cash or by cheque.

If you are declared bankrupt, the Trustee has the discretion to pay your pension to someone else’s bank account on your behalf.

We can normally change where your pension is paid to up to around the middle of the month in which your next payment is due. If your next pension payment has already been generated we cannot prevent the payment being made. However, the payment will normally be returned by your bank if your account has been closed. Once the payment is returned to us we can make arrangements to send it to your new bank account.

If you reached age 65 (men) or age 60 (women) and, if you retired from British Airways after 5 April 1978 you probably have a Guaranteed Minimum Pension (GMP). In 1978, the Government introduced a top-up to the basic State Pension, called the State Earnings Related Pension Scheme (SERPS) – more recently called the State Second Pension (S2P). SERPS provided an extra, earnings-related element of State Pension in return for an increase in National Insurance contributions.

Companies that provided pension schemes for their employees were encouraged to opt out of the SERPS arrangement (generally known as "contracting-out"). The Government offered an incentive to schemes to opt out by reducing the amount of National Insurance contributions employees and employers paid. Employees did not earn any SERPS pension but instead, the Government made it a condition of contracting-out that the Scheme had to guarantee that the employee’s Scheme pension at age 65 (for men) or age 60 (for women) would be at least equal to the SERPS pension. This guaranteed amount is called the GMP.

The GMP forms part of your main Scheme pension and can affect your pension once you reach age 60 (women) or age 65 (men) when there is a change to the amount of pension that your Scheme adds increases to.

Once you reach age 60 (women) or age 65 (men), your Scheme does not have to increase any GMP that you built up before 6 April 1988. Your Scheme adds increases to any GMP you built up between 6 April 1988 and 5 April 1997 in line with the rate specified within the Government's Pensions Increase (Review) Orders, or 3%, whichever is lower. Your Scheme will continue to add yearly increases to your remaining pension under the rules of your Scheme.

The Scheme Rules provide for full pension increases to be paid up until age 65 (men) or age 60 (women) on any GMP.

Members reaching State Pension Age (SPA) before 6 April 2016

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is responsible for paying the increase on the equivalent of any GMP built up between 6 April 1978 and 5 April 1988 but only after you have reached your State Pension age (SPA - which is later than age 60 for women born after 6 April 1950). If you have reached age 65 (men) or age 60 (women) and your SPA is later than this then there will be a period during which your GMP built up before 5 April 1988 does not receive any increases from either the Scheme or the State if your SPA is later than age 65 (men) or age 60 (women).

The Scheme is responsible for paying up to the first 3% of any increase due on any GMP you built up from 6 April 1988, once you reach age 65 (men) or age 60 (women). For members reaching State Pension Age (SPA) before 6 April 2016 once you reach your SPA the DWP is responsible for any increase amount above 3% in years where the increase is higher than 3%. Again, if you have reached age 65 (men) or age 60 (women) there could be a period during which this GMP does not receive increases above 3% from the DWP if your State Pension Age (SPA) is later than age 65 (men) or age 60 (women).

Increases in respect of GMPs that are paid by the DWP are shown on any statements the DWP sends to you about your State Pension and are shown as ‘additional pension based on earnings since 1978’.

Members reaching State Pension Age (SPA) after 5 April 2016.

The Government changed State Pension arrangements for members reaching SPA after 5 April 2016. This affects men born after 6 April 1951 and women born after 6 April 1953. The DWP will no longer pay increases to an amount equivalent to the GMP from SPA. Instead it will increase the new State Pension. APS will continue to pay increases to GMPs as required by Scheme Rules as described above.

Although tax is not deducted from the State Pension when you receive it, the State Pension is treated as taxable income. It is added by HMRC to your BA pension, and any other income that you have, for the purpose of calculating your tax liability and your personal tax code. Any tax which is due on your State Pension may be deducted from your BA pension or other income.

The BA Welfare & Benevolent Fund is a charity set up by British Airways to help current and former employees of British Airways and its predecessor companies and their dependants who are experiencing severe financial hardship.

Grants are awarded to assist with the purchase of necessary goods or services that cannot be afforded from normal income. Almost any one-off cost will be considered, although the Fund cannot provide ongoing support. Examples of items for which grants have previously been awarded are mobility aids or special equipment, appliances for the home, and property maintenance and adaptations.

There is a means tested application process and the BA Welfare and Benevolent Fund is unable to consider applications for help to clear debts or to assist with the cost of private medical treatment, private education or air travel. All applications are treated in strict confidence and reviewed on their individual merits. For more information, visit the BA Welfare & Benevolent Fund area of the BA Touchdown website.

It is very important that someone tells us straightaway when you die by calling the BA Pensions team on 020 8538 2100. The informant will need your pension reference number when calling the team. This can be found at the top of any personal communications we have sent to you. Alternatively, the informant can fill in our 'Death notification form' and send it to us in the post.

Your pension payments will continue until the end of the month in which you die, and then they will stop. When you die, your spouse or partner, Dependent children, and any Additional dependants may be eligible to receive certain benefits and these will usually be paid from the day after your date of death. We will start payment of these as soon as possible and once we have all the information we need to set up the payments.

We sometimes need to temporarily stop your pension payments for security reasons. If your pension payments are returned to us by your bank or correspondence we send to you is returned by the Post Office we will hold your pension payments until we receive your new details. Contact us straightaway on 0208 538 2100 to discuss arrangements for your pension payments to restart.

No. Once payment of your pension has started you cannot elect to stop receiving it, borrow against it or assign it to another person.

Note: If the Trustee decides at any time that you are not capable of acting on your own behalf, or if you try to borrow against your pension or transfer it to someone else, it has the right to make whatever arrangements it considers appropriate for paying your benefits.

If you need someone else to deal with your BA pension payments on your behalf you can appoint them using a Power of Attorney drawn up by a solicitor. We need to see the original Power of Attorney document (not a copy) in order to communicate directly with your nominated Attorney. We will return it immediately by Royal Mail recorded delivery.

Every time your personal circumstances change you should notify your pension scheme in writing.

You should also send us original birth and marriage certificates. These will be returned by Royal Mail recorded delivery.

In the event of a member's death, a civil partner will automatically qualify for an Adult Survivor's pension.

If you have a common-law spouse, or have a same-sex partner that you have not entered into a civil partnership with, your partner will not automatically be entitled to an Adult Survivor's pension. They can however apply to be considered for a discretionary Surviving Dependant's pension. For more information, refer to the 'Surviving Dependant Registration Form'. Your partner would need to demonstrate that they were 'financially interdependent' with you (i.e. living in a relationship similar to marriage) or 'financially dependent' on you to a substantial extent in order for the Trustee to consider paying the Adult Survivor's pension to them. It is important to note that if you die leaving a legal spouse or civil partner, any Adult Survivor's pension can only be paid to them (e.g. if you die having separated from your legal spouse or civil partner but had not legally divorced, the Adult Survivor's pension cannot be paid to any person other than your legal spouse or civil partner).

Registering your civil partner or spouse on your pension records

If you have entered into a civil partnership or recently married, you should send us your original civil partnership or marriage certificate along with your partner's original birth certificate now. We return original certificates immediately by Royal Mail recorded delivery.

You can change the investment of any BA AVC funds you have not yet drawn as often as you like by sending us an AVC Investment Switch form. Instructions must be received by 20th of a month for the change to take effect from the 1st of the following month.

You should consult a solicitor for full details. However, brief details of the ways divorce can affect your pension are provided in the following leaflets:

a) Pension and Divorce

b) Pension Earmarking

c) Pension Sharing

Your husband or wife will continue to automatically qualify for any Adult Survivor's pension from the Scheme until or unless the marriage is legally dissolved.

Please note: The information provided is relevant only for divorces under UK law. Pension Sharing is only available for divorce proceedings which commenced after 1st December 2000.

A civil partnership ends only on formal dissolution or annulment, or on the death of one of the parties. The process for dissolution is court-based. Your partner will continue to automatically qualify for any Adult Survivor's pension from the Scheme until or unless the civil partnership is legally dissolved.

No. Your pension is payable for life and does not cease if you remarry or enter into a registered civil partnership.

The pension Scheme monies are held in trusts. The APS trust is entirely separate from British Airways and BA has no control over the funds. That control is left to the Trustee. There are separate boards of Trustee companies for APS and NAPS to reflect the fact that the monies are held in separate funds and the membership profile of each Scheme is different.

The Trustee board consists of 12 APS Trustee Directors, 6 of whom have been elected by the membership.

The Pension Scheme is managed by the Trustee for the benefit of the members.

There are 8 APS Trustee Directors, 4 of whom have been elected by the membership and 4 have been appointed by British Airways.

In June 2021, following an in-depth review of our investment management business, we announced the appointment of BlackRock as the new investment manager of the assets directly under management for APS and NAPS. The assets were previously managed by our in-house team at British Airways Pension Investment Management Ltd.

The responsibility for controlling the pension fund lies with the Scheme's Trustee.

To help it to invest all of the monies, the Trustee relies on the expertise of independent advisers. A separate company, BlackRock, manages the funds on a daily basis. The Trustee sets targets for the types of investments to be held based on the expected income from them.