Carmarthenshire County Council

What happens when a local authority stops treating pension engagement as a tick-box exercise and starts treating it as a genuine benefit.

In just over a year, Carmarthenshire County Council generated £350,000 in National Insurance savings, while helping nearly 2,000 employees engage with their financial future.

This wasn’t a cost-cutting exercise. It was the result of treating pensions as a meaningful employee benefit, not an administrative task.

In June 2023, the Council partnered with My Money Matters to bring financial education, personalised coaching and a fully supported Shared Cost AVC benefit to its 5,000 LGPS employees.

What the Council wanted to achieve

The goals were simple:

• Get more employees engaged with their pension
• Increase Shared Cost AVC participation
• Help staff understand the tax advantages available
• Reduce employer National Insurance costs

Results & Impact

 

That £350,000 in employer NI savings isn't a projection, it's what the Council has already saved as a direct result of increased AVC participation. For a public sector organisation managing a constrained budget, that's meaningful money redirected back into the organisation.

Nearly double the number of employees are now saving into a Shared Cost AVC, and for most of them, it's likely the best financial decision they'll make this year.

What made the difference

Employees didn't just get access to a benefit; they understood it, used it and acted on it.

Shared Cost AVC benefit

Tax and NI-efficient contributions, with an LGPS retirement calculator to help employees model their ideal retirement income.

Live webinars and on-demand content

Covering savings, investments, retirement planning, estate planning, insurance and money management.

1:1 financial coaching

Personal sessions with in-house Education Specialists to help employees make confident decisions

Employee communications like digital posters, intranet posts, newsletter copy and promotional emails were all tailored to the Council's workforce, so the right message reached the right people in the right way.

What this means for other councils

Carmarthenshire’s experience shows what’s possible when financial education and a well-supported AVC scheme work together.

The employees who started contributing in June 2023 are already building meaningful additional retirement savings. The Council is already seeing the financial return. And a workforce of 5,000 now has access to financial education many of them never had before.

When people understand the benefit, they use it. When they use it, it pays