Police officers in the 1987 Police Pension Scheme are facing an immediate reduction in the lump sums they receive at retirement, following a sudden change to commutation factors introduced this week.

The change was triggered by a Treasury decision to increase the SCAPE discount rate, with revised commutation factors issued today and applied with immediate effect.

Commutation factors determine how much cash an officer receives if they choose to give up part of their annual pension at retirement. Under the new factors, officers retiring from today will receive almost 5% less lump sum for the same amount of pension surrendered than an officer retiring last week. That change is expected to cost police officers thousands of pounds each.

The Police Federation says the speed and timing of the change means some officers retiring now are being hit without warning, despite having received retirement quotations or benefit illustrations based on the previous factors only weeks earlier. That means officers may have already made financial decisions based on those figures.

The Federation has confirmed it is seeking independent actuarial and legal advice on the scale and justification for the change, and on whether those who received recent quotations could take legal action because of financial detriment.

Police Federation National Secretary John Partington said: “After decades of service, the ‘thanks’ retiring officers get is this: government quietly shaving cash off a hard-earned retirement overnight. It’s a blatant case of picking the pockets of police pensioners, and we will not let it stand.”