The Remediable Service Statement received by an officer will depend on the purpose they are receiving it for.

The Annual Benefit Statement/RSS for officers subject to remedy must be produced by 31^st August 2024 and will provide details of the contributions owed or owing and the interest position.

All officers will be rolled back into their legacy schemes for the remedy period, they will show the legacy scheme benefits and the alternative reformed scheme benefit position so that officers can keep up to date with how both pension positions are accruing. The statements will be based on an assumption that officers will remain in service until age 60.  PFEW made the point that age 55 will be of more interest to many officers but they are going to use age 60. The 55-exit point will have to be dealt with by requesting specific quotes from administrators.

The contribution position for monies owed can be settled within 12 weeks of the ABS/RSS being issued and again the following August and so on – ultimately it can be paid off at retirement.

The second type of RSS is the one that an officer will receive when they come to retire, their options document. This is a very important document and the remedy has made it more complex.

The first decision that should be made is which pension option is going to be taken for the remedy period, the legacy scheme or the reformed scheme. In most cases this will be a fairly straightforward decision as there will be an obvious financial difference.

Once the choice has been made there are several choices available and not all of them are reflected in the RSS’.

 The choices are, but may not be reflected:

• Take no commutation from either pension.
• Take the maximum lump sum from both pensions and pay tax on the 1987 commutation if younger than 62 years and 2 months – there is no tax implication on the 2006 and 2015 pension.
• Take the maximum tax-free option for the 1987 pension and the maximum commutation from the 2015 pension.

The above three options are the ones that are reflected on the RSS’ we have seen but there is also the option to:

• Take commutation from the 1987 scheme and not the 2015 scheme.
• Take commutation from the 2006 scheme and not the 2015 scheme.
• There is also the ability to reverse that position and take commutation from the reformed scheme and not the legacy schemes.
• Take a commutation amount from the 1987 or 2006 scheme of your choice up to the maximum lump sum amount and take no commutation from the 2015, the maximum from the 2015 or a chosen amount from the 2015 scheme.

There is greater flexibility in the choices available than is reflected in the RSS’ and we will continue to lobby for this to change.