The Police Federation of England and Wales (PFEW) pension compensation claim has moved to the next stage of the process following the passing of the deadline for applications on 31 July 2020.

Over 40,000 members have signed up for the claim, which is being made by PFEW on behalf of those who were victims of discrimination and may have suffered ‘injury to feeling’ as a result of the transitional provisions of the 2015 scheme.

PFEW staff are currently sifting through all the applications to remove duplicates and ensure members’ datasets are correctly completed, before the data is handed to our lawyers.

The lawyers will carry out their own checks and then ACAS notifications will be made on behalf of those eligible members. In due course, claims in the Employment Tribunal will be submitted.

The Government has already conceded its approach to transitional arrangements was unlawful and has committed to rectifying the situation.

Assuming the Government does in fact make good this promise, the Tribunal will be asked by PFEW’s lawyers to consider whether compensation should be awarded to claimants for injury to feelings.

PFEW’s National Secretary Alex Duncan said the court could group together members’ claims with the similar claim lodged by lawyers Leigh Day on behalf of 13,000 officers.

Mr Duncan said: “It will be down to the court as to how it wants to manage two similar claims, and the Tribunal may seek to streamline the process and join PFEW’s claims with existing claims.

“However, those claims are more advanced in the claim process and so that may not be feasible. PFEW lawyers may advise it is desirable to stay members’ claims until more is known about the current ongoing claims.

“It is probable a small number of representative sample cases will be agreed. These could involve, for instance, an individual with an ill-health pension-related claim, or those with distinctive circumstances which similarly apply to other claimants.

“These individual random sample cases would then be put together in ‘groups’ by combining claimants who have similar personal circumstances.

“The Tribunal would then make a separate ruling related to each sample case and could then award separate sums to compensate those in each ‘group’. If the claim was successful, the rate of any individual compensation would be determined by which ‘group’ a claimant was allocated.”

The Group Action is being handled on PFEW’s behalf by the leading UK and international law firm Penningtons Manches Cooper.

It will provide general updates through an Extranet site, and applicants will be invited to sign up to this in due course.

Applicants are being asked not to contact the law firm with enquiries about the claim, and instead to speak directly with branch secretaries.

Members should also check junk mail folders via their personal email address if they think they have not had a response to their application.