Pensions: help us reach all colleagues

8 July 2020

Derbyshire Police Federation secretary Kirsty Bunn is trying to contact all officers on maternity or family leave, long-term sick leave or a career break as part of efforts to ensure everyone who may want to be included in the Police Federation of England and Wales’ group action for compensation after the introduction of the 2015 pension scheme can be considered.

She is urging anyone who knows a colleague in any of those categories to ask them to get in touch with her as soon as possible.

“The deadline for applying to join the action is 17 July so time is of the essence,” says Kirsty, “Please, if you know someone on maternity leave, adoption leave or any other family leave or perhaps there’s someone on your shift who has been off work for a long time due to sickness, just let them know that the Federation wants to hear from them.

“We have been asking people to get in touch with us but we appreciate there are some officers who will not be seeing our website or our social media feeds so we need other members to help us spread the word.

“Anyone interested in joining the action will be asked to fill out a survey and I can send them the link to enable them to do that.”

The Police Federation of England and Wales (PFEW) announced in May that it was launching a compensation claim against the Government on behalf of affected members who suffered any ‘injury to feeling’ as a result of the transitional protections afforded to some officers when the 2015 pension scheme was introduced.

The Government has accepted that it must rectify any detriment suffered as a result of those transitional protections. Work is ongoing as to how that remedy will be applied across the whole of the public sector pension schemes, including the police service.

The purpose of the PFEW claim is to ensure those who have not already submitted a claim in respect of the discrimination are also considered for any compensation the court considers appropriate for the distress caused by the transitional protections.

Contact Kirsty.