In 2015, the government made changes to most public service pension schemes, including the NHS Pension Scheme. These reforms did not apply to members closest to retirement. The Court of Appeal later found that this discriminated against younger members.
The government is removing this age discrimination from public service pension schemes. It is doing this in two parts.
The first part was completed in 2022, with all active members now being members of the 2015 Scheme, this provides equal treatment for all active pension scheme members.
The second part is to put right, or 'remedy,’ the discrimination that could have taken place during between 1 April 2015 and 31 March 2022, known as the remedy period. The Public Service Pension Remedy, sometimes known as the McCloud Remedy, will:
- give affected members a choice of whether they receive 1995/2008 Scheme or 2015 Scheme benefits for their service in the remedy period
- return any service that affected members have in the 2015 Scheme during the remedy period back into the 1995/2008 Scheme
You will receive your Remediable Service Statement (RSS), including updated figures so that you can make your informed choice on retirement.
More information about when you will make your choice can be found on our website – Making your decision about your NHS Pension benefits.
If you are affected by McCloud and have not already retired, we are required to provide an annual statement which shows both ‘versions’ of your benefits - ‘standard’ and ‘alternative’ benefits.
From August 2025, your annual ABS will show ‘Option A - standard’ and ‘Option B - alternative’ benefits every year until you retire. This will allow you to see what your retirement options might look like depending on which choice you make on retirement. The rest of the details on your ABS will remain the same as previous years.
It is important to note that these figures are estimations. When you make an application for retirement you will receive your RSS, the figures included in that statement will be more accurate and up to date. You should only use the figures on your ABS to guide you, you will not be asked to make a final decision until you retire.
You can still access your Total Reward Statement (TRS) or ABS in the same way as you usually do, which you can find out by visiting the other guides on our website.
When you select the 'NHS Pension' tab within TRS, you will first see a landing page that explains more about the McCloud remedy. You will need to confirm you have read this by ticking a box on the page. Once you have done this you will be provided with 2 tabs, Option A standard benefits and Option B alternative benefits. Within each of these tabs you will see that you then have separate tabs for each scheme that you have benefits in; 1995, 2008 and 2015. It is important to remember that you cannot mix and match the benefits from each option.
Standard benefits
These are an estimate of the benefits you will receive as standard when you retire if you choose to receive 1995 or 2008 benefits for your service during the remedy period.
Alternative benefits
These are an estimate of the benefits you will receive as standard when you retire if you choose to receive 2015 benefits for your service during the remedy period.