Federation secures win on maternity support

20 July 2018

The Federation has successfully challenged pension regulations it felt could be discriminatory against fathers, same sex partners and adopting couples.

As a result, the Home Office is amending the Police Pension Schemes and Additional Voluntary Contributions Amendment (England and Wales) Regulations 2018. The news comes just as the Police Federation of England and Wales was planning to submit a claim for a judicial review.

The regulations had, according to Leicestershire Police Federation chair Tiff Lynch, risked unfairly treating some officers.

She explained: “The previous regulations had allowed women to make contributions so they could ‘buy back’ pension during their maternity leave but prevented others – more likely to be men – doing so when on maternity support leave. The Federation argued the leave was actually intended to allow them to care for the child rather than protect women during and after pregnancy and childbirth – so it could not be justified to treat them any differently.”

The Federation challenged the 2018 regulations and convinced the Home Office they were unfair resulting in the initial amendment back to 2014. But the Federation still felt this was not enough and argued for it to be backdated to April 2011 when extra maternity support leave was first introduced. This has now been agreed.

Andy Fittes, general secretary of the Police Federation of England and Wales, said it was a win for Federation members and equality.

“We made the point to the Home Office that the regulations as they stood amounted to indirect sex discrimination and were unlawful. Our legal advice also suggested that the cut-off date of 1 September 2014 wasn’t right, and that there was a strong case for saying that officers who had taken leave before that date should be able to pay contributions to buy back pension. I’m delighted that we were able to push the date back to 3 April 2011,” he said.

“This work is legally ground-breaking as well as being good for officers. We are not talking about massive sums for individuals, but those pension contributions will continue to give a benefit throughout retirement. From a personal point of view, it is satisfying that the Home Office capitulated as it shows we were right to bring the challenge.

“It is also a win for equality and for ensuring that the regulations achieve the objective of ensuring that our members – men and women - are not disadvantaged by having children or adopting.”

A member who wishes to buy back periods of unpaid family leave for pension purposes must notify the police pension authority in writing by 21 August 2018. They will be required to pay an amount equal to the pension contributions which would have been paid had the unpaid leave not been taken.

Tiff discusses the victory.

Maternity and Adoption Support Leave