Dear colleague,

I hope you are finding the Police Pensions Newsletter useful. We are aware of the concerns amongst our members regarding the ongoing issues with the Annual Benefit Statements - Remediable Service Statements (ABS-RSS) rollout, which was due to take place by 31 August 2024.

In order to resolve these issues, we recognise that chief constables of all the 43 forces in England and Wales must be made conscious of the strength of feeling amongst our membership. Produced below are the contents of the letter we have written, jointly with the Police Superintendents’ Association, to the National Police Chiefs’ Council for your knowledge:

Failure to provide an ABS-RSS
Some forces failed completely while others have failed partially. Some are trying to rectify this as quickly as possible; others have stated that they will get the RSS published by 31 March 2025.

Forces have reported their failure to the Pension Regulator but we are unsure if all the failures have been reported. This is clearly not acceptable and adds to the uncertainty and is indicative of the general way that the remedy has been handled by forces and administrators. We all focus on the member journey and for many that has been awful and continues to be so.

We have asked for a countrywide compliance picture so that members have an idea of when they are likely to receive their RSSs. The delay has an effect on the interest as the longer it takes for them to be produced the more interest that will be applied to monies owed. It is our strong contention that this should not be the case and that no member should be worse off due to the inefficiency of the administration.

Providing an ABS-RSS with insufficient detail
West Midlands Police have produced RSSs with no contribution adjustment data on them. Many of the MPS RSSs do not have that information on them. They are not the only transgressors. Bearing in mind this is one of the main reasons for its production, it is a particularly disappointing omission.

The MPS have taken a pragmatic approach and have frozen interest at 31 August 2024 for those who want to pay the monies owed within the three-month window. We do not know how they are going to deal with those who are unable to or do not want to pay the monies owed in that window, will their interest be calculated from 31 August 2024 when interest starts to accrue again?

It would appear a national issue is transferees and forces are struggling to obtain the data from the previous force. This has resulted in delays in publishing their RSSs.

Providing an ABS-RSS with incorrect information
There has been a worrying number of members contacting the Federation due to errors in their ABS-RSSs. Part time workers seem to be particularly affected.

There were part-time PCs at a recent Metfriendly event who had figures owing by them of £21,500, £18,000 and £14,500. These amounts are impossible to owe, and it raises concerns about the checks and balances in place regarding the process. They are not the only examples.

On the other hand, there are members who are clearly owed too little. There are other members with missing pensionable service. In fact, you name a pension error that could be made on a pension forecast and we have been provided with examples of it.

Members will be charged additional interest whilst they have to wait for these errors to be corrected. Again, that is not acceptable.

It is getting to the stage where the sheer number of errors are making it impossible to have confidence in the documents produced and members may have to approach their forces to get professional help with the figures they have provided and claim compensation.

The compensation framework is an issue in its own right and we will not cover that in detail here. Many forces are yet to publish a policy and process for officers to claim compensation for professional advice. The gross position in many statements has also not been helpful, though we know that this can be addressed and will be addressed in future years.

There is a wider issue here, members have responsibilities with regards to tax and self-assessment. The approach to remedy is making these requirements more complex and for some unachievable.

The next big date for remedy is 6 October 2024 and the issue of Pension Savings Statements. This is a hard deadline, and we are concerned we are going to see a similar outcome to the ABS-RSS rollout.

If there is going to be an issue with the PSS rollout, we would be grateful if the NPCC and the administrators can communicate that prior to the deadline not after it has not been met.

The use of 60 as the forecast date
PFEW has made the NPCC and SAB aware that this was going to be a problem. We understand the rationale given for the forecasting to 60, but it does not make the issue any less of one.

The majority of members do not want 60 as the forecast date, the majority want 55. The mitigation for the 60 forecast was, if you need another date forecast then approach your pension administrator.

Members are doing this to find that the administrators are not providing forecasts or are limiting the forecast to the next six months. This extra work was foreseeable. One force is suggesting that members go to an ex-Fed rep who is now a financial advisor to get a forecast. This is a total abrogation of their responsibility.

It is another area where the member journey is not as it should be.

Difference in approach adopted by forces
We have already identified the pragmatic approach taken by the MPS. We feel that other forces will not take such a pragmatic approach.

This creates discrimination by postcode and is not good enough.

Due to the issues being encountered we ask that the NPCC discuss with Chief Constables some form of amnesty on interest and dates interest can be paid by until the issues are resolved. It would be good if interest was frozen at 31 August 2024, for monies owed, for all and an extension to the three-month window given so that the many issues identified can be addressed.

Interest
NPCC is aware of PFEW’s stance on interest, it is unfair, unnecessary and unwieldy and it is adding complexity to the administration of the pension at a time when administrators clearly cannot cope.

It is incredible that members who did not know they owed money and even if they had could not have paid it are being asked to pay compound interest from the earliest date that they subsequently were found to owe it from.

The Government has gone back to 2015 with the compound interest. On interest owing to members, it is simple interest. That is another unfair and unbalanced decision.

Interest is being levied because protected members paid the correct contributions at the correct time. Unprotected and tapered members were unable to do so because they were being discriminated against due to the discriminatory nature of the tapered protections.

Then to add insult to injury they were not informed in a timely fashion of what they owed but whilst waiting for the amount to be produced, which has taken years, not months, they are being charged further compound interest. The further delays due to the less than successful ABS-RSS rollout see them being charged more interest.

There was no ability to mitigate the interest and it is understandably causing anger and disaffection amongst members and will continue to do so unless it is addressed. All of the negative consequences of remedy appear to be falling on the members and that is how they are feeling.

The argument the Government is paying members interest on money that they owe does not make the way the 1987 members owing contributions are being treated any better.

We know that the legislation gives a three-month window after each ABS-RSS to pay the monies owed in full. One of the questions we have received is why? It is a valid question why are members being prevented from paying the amount they owe when they want to and when they can.

The lack of an installment plan has also caused anger. We know all of this is complicated but it is complicated because it has been made so, this is not the fault of the members but it is another area where they are bearing the consequences.

The picture for beneficiaries is not good either. There could be a circumstance where an orphan of a police officer who died in service could be asked to pay interest on contributions owing. We are already seeing spouses having to make that decision.

Administrators are struggling to cope and we have been at meetings where Scheme Manager representatives were asking whether they need to calculate an extra five days interest. Another where members had paid what was owed but the force did not have the ability to take the payments and were talking about sending them back.

Forces are paying administrators considerable sums of money for the calculations to be carried out. Surely these costs would be better used mitigating the issue for members. Economics in this situation should not just be about the plain figures, the detrimental effect this is having on members is also a cost and that needs to be addressed.

We know that the NPCC were not in favour of interest being levied but we would now ask that the whole issue is considered afresh and if necessary, the Government lobbied in a joint approach from the employers and the staff associations so that we can make remedy fairer and more efficient for the members.

We will continue to update you through the newsletter at regular intervals. If you have questions or would like to see anything covered/updated in future editions of the newsletter, please e-mail pensionenquiries@polfed.org.

Kind regards,

Calum Macleod

National Secretary