The Court of Appeal ruling on 'protection', known as the McCloud Judgment
In 2015 the government made changes to reform the majority of public service pension schemes. These reforms did not apply to members within 10 years of their normal pension age on the 31 March 2012, who remained in their legacy schemes with ‘transitional protection’.
The Court of Appeal later found this to be discriminatory against younger members in the judicial and firefighters’ schemes – the government accepted that this discrimination existed in all schemes where transitional protection was introduced. It is sometimes referred to as the McCloud judgment.
The period this discrimination will apply is between 1 April 2015 and 31 March 2022, and this is called the remedy period.
The government is removing this discrimination from all public service pension schemes.
This is because automatically moving all members back into the legacy pension scheme, without giving you a choice, would leave some worse off, so it is important you choose the scheme benefits that are best for you.
The government published a consultation in July 2020 to look at how best to do this. The consultation set out two ways of asking affected members to make a choice:
- in the near future – this is called the Immediate Choice Exercise
- when you retire - this is called the Deferred Choice Underpin
The government published a consultation response in February 2021. The government has now decided to implement a ‘deferred choice underpin’ which was the approach preferred by the majority of the respondents to the consultation.
Only some members are affected
If you joined a public service pension scheme on or before 31 March 2012 and you were still a member of the scheme on 1 April 2015, you will be asked to choose your pension scheme benefits at the point when your benefits become payable, e.g. when you retire.
Members who received tapered protection in 2015 will also be offered a choice of which pension benefits they receive for any service between 1 April 2015 and 1 April 2022.
How you’ll make your choice
Asking you to make this choice when you retire means you’ll know what you’re entitled to under each option, making it easier to make the right decision for you.
Reforming public service pension schemes for all members
To make sure all members are treated equally, from 1 April 2022 all active members, regardless of their age, will be members of the reformed scheme that many of our members are already part of. All legacy pension schemes will be closed, including the 1995/2008 NHS Pension Scheme.
If you are member of the 1995/2008 Scheme, you will keep any service you have earned up until 1 April 2022 in the legacy scheme and you’ll be able to access these benefits in the same way and at the same time as you can now. Any pension benefits you earn on or after the 1 April 2022 will be in the reformed pension scheme.
This ensures the government’s aims of rewarding hardworking public servants, as well as making sure schemes are sustainable and affordable in the future, are met.
We’ll keep NHS Pension Scheme members updated
Following the consultation response, the government will be introducing new legislation and intends for the processes needed to support members to make a choice once they retire to be in place by 1 October 2023, or earlier if schemes are able to do so.
Helping members who are affected to make their choice of pension scheme benefits with confidence is our priority, and we’re putting in place processes to help them do this. Once this is complete, we’ll share more information with our members on what’s next.
For now, all our processes will remain the same and there is nothing you need to do. We’ll contact all affected members directly when you need to take action.
You can find more information in the FAQs on our knowledge base.
For more information on the changes please visit gov.uk.