The New Airways Pension Scheme (NAPS) is the British Airways pension scheme. More information about the scheme is available on www.mybapension.com*. St. James's Place accepts no responsibility or liability for the information below.

NAPS is a very generous defined benefit pension arrangement. You earn pension entitlement based on your length of service and your final pensionable salary.

It gives a guaranteed pension at the point of retirement that is payable for the rest of your life.

• Currently the pension is largely protected against inflation – it increases in line with the rise in the consumer prices index up to a maximum of 5% per annum (this may change in the future).
• It provides generous benefits for your partner and dependants, at 2/3rd for your spouse and 1/6th for your dependents up to the age 23 or whilst in full time education.

The risks of the pension scheme are largely in the deficit provisions and the solvency of British Airways itself. In theory, taking a pension with British Airways under the New Airways Pension Scheme is a low-risk strategy. It is very unusual for benefits under a defined benefits scheme such as NAPS to be defaulted upon or indeed even reduced. This does of course depend on the successful management of the scheme including that the deficit doesn’t grow out of control.

In the worst-case scenario, the Pension Protection Fund is there to provide some form of additional security. It is not designed, however, to take over the responsibility of a pension scheme unless an employer has become insolvent.

Changes to the Scheme:

Since the closure of NAPS on 31st March 2018, there have been significant adjustments and additions to the scheme. Most notably from January 2019, British Airways offered the ability for those within NAPS the option to ‘partially transfer’ their benefits, rather than the previous binary ‘all or nothing’ transfer options of previous years.

3 year link:

The transitional option within NAPS, known as the '3 year link', came to an end for many on the 31st March 2021. Beyond this point, NAPS benefits will simply rise in line with CPI, capped at 5% up to an individual's respective 'Normal Retirement Age(s)'. For some individuals, getting a promotion before December 2023 will still have provided a large uplift in pension benefits via the transitional link. These rules, and the passing of December 2023, provide opportunity to reflect on how your personal benefits will now increase moving forwards, and to access what level of income you could achieve in retirement via your NAPS pension.

BAPP:

New funds have now been added to the Aviva BAPP scheme offering greater variation in options. There are also ways to potentially optimise the contributions you make towards Aviva BAPP.

If you would like to chat about which options best suit you, please do not hesitate to give us a call.

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