Immediate Choice officers are those who retired before the 1 October 2023 and are subject to remedy.

There will be a large number of officers who will receive a remedy choice but will not be changing their pension position. PFEW’s concern is for those officers who will need a change of pension provision as their remedy choice was not provided to them at retirement and they are owed Legacy scheme benefits.

Forces have until 1 April 2025 to remedy officers who retired before 1 October 2023. Members will be contacted by the pension administrators and provided with an RSS. This will show the same details as already described plus details of back payments owed for pension and commutation and the interest they are owed. There will also be a contribution adjustment required if they choose legacy benefits for the remedy period. Interest on monies owed is simple interest at 8%.

Ill Health retirement and the survivors of bereaved officers will be remedied first. There will be different dates for different forces. PFEW are working with Care of Police Survivors and the NPCC to work out the best approach to deal with vulnerable and sensitive cases.

PFEW are aware of the campaign for retired officers who are awaiting remedy to write to their MPs regarding the remedy timetable. Officers should still speak with their local Federation and senior management so that the timetable for their Force can be ascertained and monitored. Legally there is nothing that can be done as the remedy is within the remediable period as provided by the legislation.  However, PFEW share the concerns of the officers who have yet to be remedied and we our monitoring the situation and lobbying stakeholders to get this done as soon as possible.

In recent weeks another issue has been identified regarding taxation and interest. It is detailed in the link below and only affects those who took the maximum lump sum at retirement and paid a tax charge.  All other officers who retired before 1 October 2023 and are awaiting remedy are unaffected and there is nothing stopping them being remedied and it looks like administrators are now starting to deal with these cases.

IC-RSS-unauthorised-payments-update-V1.1.pdf (policepensioninfo.co.uk)

The NPCC will continue to lobby HMT and HMRC to reach a solution but we are now in the pre-election period where there can be no ministerial action or statement so inevitably there is going to be a delay in remedying affected officers.