Pension Working Group survey

16 September 2020

The newly formed West Midlands Police Federation (WMPF) Pension Working Group wants to understand what officers know about the current situation around pensions.

The working group was set up earlier in the summer and is made up of nine Federation representatives with a mixture of both those in the Pension Challenge, those in the Police Federation of England and Wales group action compensation claim and those in neither.

At the first meeting, on Tuesday 21 July, it was agreed to submit a response on behalf of WMPF to the Government’s consultation on its proposed remedy to the discrimination found in the transitional arrangements on the launch of the 2015 Career Average Revalued Earnings (CARE) Police Pension Scheme.

And at subsequent meetings, members discussed the need to establish what officers know about the current situation around pensions.

“Therefore, it was proposed to initiate a survey to help us fully understand the position of members and to provide information as to the Government’s proposed remedy to the discrimination found in the transitional arrangements put in place when the 2015 pension scheme was launched and how it could affect individuals. This will then help us going forward with further discussions and proposals,” says Jon Nott, West Midlands Police Federation chair, who is a member of the working group.

The group’s primary stance is that all members should be reverted to their original pensions and remain on these since these were what they signed up to and that any new scheme should be for new members. There are a number of questions within the consultation that deal with different parts of the remedy proposal and the working group will provide responses to these.

In addition to the Federation branch chair, the West Midlands Police Federation Pensions Working Group is made up of:
• Chris (Sid) James – chair
• Aaron Bell
• Richard Cooke
• Trudy Gittins
• Steve Grange
• Darren Neville
• Rod Rose
• Steve Temperton.

The Government consultation, which also applies to other public service pension schemes, closes on 11 October 2020.