MEMBERSHIP

 

Membership of the North West Police Benevolent Fund is available to serving and retired Police Officers of the six North West Police Forces (including their pre 1974 constituent forces). 

There are currently 16,500 members of The Ben Fund. You can check if you are a member by looking at your pay or pension slip, if there is a deduction to ‘Benevolent Fund’ than you are a member and can access benefits including: 

  • Respite and Recovery
  • Physiotherapy
  • Mental Health Support
  • Wellbeing Breaks
  • Financial Assistance during times of hardship
  • ‘In-service’ death grant awarded to dependants

Serving officer membership details

Your monthly donation of £8.40 is subject to payroll giving, so the benefit of tax relief is applied to the gross amount you pay. This means that a 20% taxpayer is contributing £6.72 per month, and a 40% taxpayer is contributing £5.04 per month.

If you are not currently a member, are eligible and would like to join The Ben Fund, please complete the ‘Membership Joining Form’ linked below and we will arrange for the monthly deduction to be taken directly from your salary.

In normal circumstances a new member must wait for 12 months from the date of joining to access The Ben Fund services.

Exceptions to this include new recruits, who get the first 12 months payment free from the date of joining the service and can access services during that period.

Occasionally the trustees will authorise an amnesty for serving & retired officers where new members may access services in a period less than 12 months.  These are advertised in advance.

If you would prefer to complete a paper application, please email membership@nwpbf.org and we will send you the application form.

ONLINE MEMBERSHIP FORM

Retiring officer membership details

Police Officers who are members of The Ben Fund at the time of their retirement, can continue membership with a reduced monthly rate of £6.00 per month paid directly from their Police Pension.

The donation is via the tax efficient ‘Give as You Earn’ scheme. This means that a 20% taxpayer is contributing £4.80 per month from their pension with the remaining £1.20 tax element going straight to the charity, and a 40% taxpayer is contributing £3.60 per month from their pension with the remaining £2.40 tax element going straight to the charity.

The only difference in services provided to retired members over serving officers is the loss of the £5000 ‘In-Service’ death grant. Everything else that you had access to as a serving officer is available to you in your retirement.

If you would like to continue with your membership into your retirement, please complete the ‘Retiring Officer – Continuing Membership Form’ linked below, and return to us at membership@nwpbf.org and we will arrange for the monthly deduction to be taken direct at source from your pension provider.

Additional information for retiring Lancashire officer membership

In the case of retiring Lancashire officers, on receipt of your completed membership form you will be contacted (by your preferred method) and we will provide you with our bank details, for you to set up a monthly Standing Order payment to the charity. This is due to your pension being paid via the local authority pension scheme, who do not manage a pension deduction on behalf of The Ben Fund.

RETIRED OFFICER MEMBERSHIP FORM