Remedy
What is the Remedy?
Lord Hutton, in 2012, was asked by the Coalition Government to produce a report to deal with the reform of public sector pensions and he proposed that all public sector workers should move to a reformed scheme on 1st April 2015. The reformed scheme for the police is the Police Pension Scheme 2015. Lord Hutton also proposed that this would be a cliff edge move across to the new schemes, but the Government disagreed and offered transitional protections to those closer to retirement.
Those transitional protections were found to be discriminatory and the remedy is the rectification of the discrimination.
The remedy applies to pension scheme members who were in pensionable public service both on or before 31 March 2012 and on or after 1 April 2015, including those with a gap in service of no longer than five years. Members who joined from 1 April 2012 are not in scope for the remedy. It is pensionable public service not just police pensionable service.
The Public Service Pensions and Judicial Offices Act 2022 (PSPJOA 22) came into effect on 1 October 2023 and provides the framework for the implementation of the remedy which will give members the same pension choices for the Remedy Period (1 April 2015 to 31 March 2022). They will have a choice between their legacy scheme (1987 or 2006 pension) and the reformed scheme (2015 scheme) for the remedy period and that choice does not need to be made until retirement.
Officers have been rolled back into their legacy schemes for the remedy period and a remediable service statement should have been provided to them, there have been issues with this and further details are in the ABS/RSS/PSS tab and there is also further information around the contribution adjustments under that section of the website.
Compensation Process
Forces should have published their guidance for how members can claim compensation for losses and advice required as a result of the remedy.
The guidance should explain how compensation can be applied for and the appeals process if the application is unsuccessful.
From a practical point of view members may wish to get pre-authorisation from their force before spending money on advice.
Any issues in this area please speak with your local Branch Board in the first instance.
Useful Link
