The National Federation of Voluntary Bodies Pension & Life Assurance Scheme was established in 1996 following intensive lobbying of Government by the National Federation on behalf of staff employed by member organisations who are not covered by the Nominated Health Services Superannuation Scheme (NHSSS).

The Scheme is designed to provide benefits for you and your family, which are in addition to those provided by the State. As a member of the Scheme you and/or your family will be entitled to some or all of the following benefits:

• A pension on retirement;
• An Approved Retirement Fund (ARF) option on retirement;
• An optional tax-free lump sum on retirement;
• A lump sum on death in service.

For further information, or for a copy of our Pension Booklet, please contact Maria McMahon.

A Brief Overview of the Scheme:

• The pension scheme is a Defined Contribution Scheme and benefits are based on contributions paid by you and your Employer.
• Your Employer currently pays 7% of your Pensionable Earnings to the Scheme, 0.85% of this currently goes to cover the cost of the life cover and the running costs of the Scheme.  The balance of 6.15% is invested for your retirement.
• You pay 5% of Pensionable Earnings, all of which is invested for your retirement.
• The Normal Retirement Date under the Scheme is your 65th birthday although early retirement is possible from age 50 onwards with the employer’s consent.
• When you first join the pension Scheme, your contributions will be invested in the Passive IRIS fund which is the default investment fund for the Scheme.
• Once your records have been set up by New Ireland you will receive a ‘Welcome Pack’ which will include a booklet outlining a range of funds into which contributions can be invested. You may then select a different fund(s) to invest your contributions into.
• In the unfortunate event of your death before retirement a lump sum of 3 times your Pensionable Earnings 

Currently there are 4,501 people (3,489 Active members and 1,012 deferred members) from 25 different National Federation member organisations availing of the scheme.  The total value of the fund under management at this time is approx. €195m.

The Trustees of the National Federation Pension Scheme are:

• Bernard O'Regan, Western Care Association (Chairperson)
• Francis Coughlan, SOS 
• Tony Darmody 
• John McHugo, Ability West
• John O'Dea 
• Brian O'Donnell, National Federation of Voluntary Bodies

A full range of our member’s pension booklets can be downloaded by clicking on the relevant booklet hereunder:

Member Pension Scheme Booklet

Investment Choice Member Booklet

Approaching Retirement Member Booklet

Internal Dispute Resolution Procedure

Data Protection Notice (DPN) of the National Federation of Voluntary Bodies Pension and Life Assurance Scheme is available to download here. 

For further information on the pension scheme, please contact Maria McMahon Pension Manager, National Federation Secretariat, Oranmore Business Park, Oranmore, Galway or Telephone 091-792316

You can also get further information on your personal pension plan by contacting the New Ireland Pension Consultant dedicated to your scheme.