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Government responds to public pensions consultation

The government has today (Thursday 4th February) published its response to a public consultation on the remedy to rectify the discrimination caused by the 2015 cross-sector pensions reforms. The consultation and associated response cover all public sector schemes.  The full government response can be viewed here.

The Police Superintendents’ Association (PSA) and staff association colleagues, are working through the detail of the document released to understand the impact on members and the wider workforce. The Scheme Advisory Board will now be tasked with establishing what this means for each of the pension schemes.

As active members of the UK Police Pensions Consultative Forum and the Police Scheme Advisory Board, the PSA has been engaged with the process throughout and will continue to work closely with these key forums.  A timeline explaining the process to date can be viewed here.

National Secretary Dan Murphy said, “Having received the government’s response document today, we are working through the detail to enable us to provide comprehensive feedback and advice to members.  What we can confirm, is that this remedy will be applied to all those affected by the reforms, irrespective of whether they have launched a claim.

“We understand that members and officers at all ranks will have questions and concerns about what this means, and we will work at pace to understand the detail and release further information as soon as practical.

“In collaboration with staff association colleagues, we will also call for the government to provide clear guidance to ensure that those approaching retirement are able to elect whether to have the remedy period counted as time in the legacy scheme immediately, rather than potentially having to wait until October 2023.”

The PSA’s submission to the public consultation is available to view here.