Pensions

Engaging with the Government around the police pension schemes is one of our most important areas of work because a police pension has always been regarded as a key element of the remuneration of our members.

Below are the most recent updates pertaining to the Police Pensions.

September 2022 – Letter from the seven UK Staff Associations to the Home Office

PFEW and the six other UK staff associations wrote collectively to the Home Office to express our shared concerns around a number of pension related subjects. The issues raised include implementation of the second phase of the remedy to the unlawful age discrimination identified in the McCloud/Sargeant judgment, the pensions trap, and the overall relationship that Home Office officials have with those who represent serving officers across the country. The letter can be accessed here.

March 2022 - Public Service Pensions and Judicial Offices Act 2022 (PSP&JO Bill)

The government introduced the Public Services Pensions and Judicial Offices Bill (PSP&JOB) to legislate how they will remove the discrimination identified by the courts in the way that the 2015 pension reforms were introduced. The guidance can be accessed here.

March 2022 – Pension remedy FAQs

Click here to find a comprehensive FAQ document regarding the pension remedy. This document is designed to answer FAQs about the Government’s intended remedy to the unlawful discrimination caused by the transitional protections under the Police Pension Scheme 2015 (the 2015 CARE Scheme) following the McCloud/Sargeant Court of Appeal decision.

A remedy calculator (My Own Pension - McCloud) is now available for members or former members of the Police Pension Scheme 1987 to use. Action is being undertaken to look to include Police Pension Scheme 2006 members and further communications will be issued to advise once this is available.

PFEW is aware the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) published a circular on 25 March regarding members who opted out and are intending to seek re-admission into the pension scheme (for the Remedy Period) through the ‘contingent decisions’ route. The Home Office has not published updated guidance or information on this matter and as such, PFEW maintains the position as stated in 3.12 of the remedy FAQ document.

November 2021 – Immediate Detriment Guidance withdrawn

Following further discussions between HMT and HMRC, on 29 November 2021 the Home Office withdrew its informal and non-statutory Immediate Detriment Guidance, stating that in the light of uncertainty around the legal position and the risk of generating unintended tax consequences for members such cases should not be processed prior to the relevant legislation being put in place.

On 22 March 2022 having obtained further legal advice on the matter the NPCC wrote to Chief Constables advising them to cease use of the Immediate Detriment guidance.

PFEW are currently exploring the possibility of taking legal claims on this matter.

June 2021 - Guidance for members about to retire 

The Home Office has now issued an update to the existing informal and non-statutory guidance on immediate detriment cases.

The guidance applies to pipeline immediate detriment cases (i.e. those cases where the member is about to retire and receive their pension) and does not cover where a pension is already in payment. This is technical guidance and aimed primarily at pension managers and practitioners.

As you will know, to implement remedy in full, both primary and secondary legislation are required, as well as administration work (at local Force level) to implement the changes. The deferred choice underpin will be implemented by October 2023.

As a result, the guidance will not offer resolution to all the current issues – there are outstanding technical issues that are being worked through across the public sector pension schemes and the responsible Government departments. The updated guidance aims to provide ways forward where possible.

The guidance provides informal advice but the overall responsibility for interpreting and applying the pension scheme regulations still remains with each Chief Constable as the relevant scheme manager. Forces and administrators will need to consider the guidance in relation to their own process and systems.

April 2021 - Seeking evidence that Remedy will not cause further discrimination 

On 20 April 2021 we wrote to the Home Secretary to seek evidence and clarification that the implementation of the public sector pensions Remedy would not cause further discrimination to any of our members. You can read the letter here. 

In our response to the Remedy consultation we raised serious concerns around the impact of the Remedy proposals on some groups of members. Our letter to the Home Secretary invites comment and justification on a number of potential issues that we have identified in our initial response to the Government’s proposed Remedy to the discrimination.

We have also written directly to the Home office on a number of other concerns including taxation implications of the Remedy, the position of late joiners to PPS 87, and non-club transfers affected during the Remedy period. Additionally, we continue to discuss the logistics of the implementation of the Remedy with the Police Scheme Advisory Board.

February 2021 – Government consultation response

We have now had the opportunity to go through the Government’s consultation response in detail and have met with the Police Scheme Advisory Board to establish what this means for all of our members on the varying schemes.

In short summary the Government response details that:

• The Remedy applies to all who were members of a ‘legacy’ public service pension scheme (or eligible to be) immediately prior to 1 April 2012 and have a period of service after 31 March 2015 during which they were members of a legacy or reformed scheme. 
• If you joined the police service on or after 1 April 2012 the Remedy will not apply to you.
• The Remedy period is 1 April 2015 to 31 March 2022.  Eligible members will have a choice on retirement whether their scheme benefits relating to the Remedy period remain in their legacy scheme, or they choose to convert it to 2015 scheme membership. This is particularly helpful as we know there will be some who are better off in the reformed schemes than the legacy schemes.

What is positive from the response is that the Government has chosen to implement the Remedy through the Deferred Choice Underpin option, which was the option we recommended in our response to the consultation back in October 2020. This means that members do not have to choose which scheme they receive benefits from during the Remedy period until they reach retirement age and enables them to make their decision based on fact rather than an estimate.

You can find Q and A’s with more information here.