Additional Voluntary Contributions (AVCs) are additional pension contributions that a member of an occupational pension scheme can make in order to enhance their pension benefits at retirement. Although AVCs offer scheme members another method to enhance their pension benefits, they are separate, and operate differently to, the purchase of notional service facility available under civil and public service occupational pension schemes. AVCs are private pension vehicles, administered by an insurance company or financial service/pension provider.
Civil and public servants may be facilitated by their employer in making AVCs to their chosen AVC arrangement, in line with Letter to Personnel Officers 19 February 1987 – ‘Additional Voluntary Contributions’ and Letter to HR Managers 22 November 2024 – ‘Transition of Civil and Public Service AVC Schemes to Master Trusts’.
Queries about additional voluntary contributions, such as setting up an AVC, the maximum AVC an individual can make and so on, should be sent to the financial services or pension provider concerned. The Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform cannot provide advice on the terms of any AVC scheme operated by a private company.
