Contingent decisions

Every Public Service Pension Scheme is working through significant complexity to put in place the Public Service Pensions Remedy for all affected members.

As the largest Scheme, we have made a lot of progress towards implementing the remedy so affected members can make their choice with confidence. However, the challenges facing all Schemes mean we need to update the timings for when this choice will be available, and when members can expect to receive their choice communications. We recognise that this means members are waiting longer than planned and we apologise for the delay.

A contingent decision is a decision you made or did not make because of actual or perceived implications of the 2015 Scheme reforms. You'd have acted differently if you knew you'd be remaining in the 1995/2008 Scheme for the remedy period.

An example of a contingent decision would be if you chose to opt out of the Scheme because you were not able to remain in the 1995/2008 Scheme for the remedy period.

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) recently published the outcome of its consultation on how contingent decisions will be administered in the NHS Pension Scheme.

We’re working on the processes needed for this. Once they're in place, we’ll contact affected members directly to explain how the remedy applies to your pension and any action you need to take for the following contingent decisions:

Voluntary contributions and additional pension

If you cancelled an Added Years or Additional Pension arrangement in the legacy scheme because of the discrimination identified in the McCloud judgement, you may be able to choose to undo that cancellation.

Early Retirement Reduction Buy-out (ERRBO)

Active or deferred members of the 2015 Scheme who paid Early Retirement Reduction Buy Out (ERRBO) contributions between 1 April 2015 and 31 March 2022 will receive a letter explaining they have options for what to do with these contributions.

These members have this choice because their 2015 Scheme membership for the period between 1 April 2015 and 31 March 2022 has been moved back to the 1995/2008 Scheme as part of the Public Service Pensions Remedy (PSPR).

As ERRBO is not available in the 1995/2008 Scheme, these members are being contacted to ask what they would like to do with the ERRBO contributions they paid during this period, known as the remedy period.

As part of the PSPR, members will be given a choice of 1995/2008 Scheme or 2015 Scheme benefits for the remedy period when they retire. This means that what they choose to do with their affected ERRBO contributions now will affect the options they have when they claim their pension benefits.

The first option is to wait until retirement to take these contributions. This means you’ll still have the option to choose 2015 Scheme benefits for the remedy period and use your contributions to retire earlier without any reductions to your pension. If you decide the 1995/2008 Scheme is better for you, you can have your ERRBO contributions paid back to you with interest, or convert them to additional pension.

The second option is to apply to have these contributions paid back to you now. This means that if you choose the 2015 Scheme for the remedy period when you retire, you will no longer have ERRBO contributions for this period.

If you are affected by this, you will receive a letter explaining your options in detail, including a summary of how much your ERRBO contributions add up to.

Choice 2 - choosing between 1995 and 2008 Section benefits

Original Choice members, who moved to the 2008 Section, have not been given the option to reverse their Choice decision as those members could have remained in the 1995 section.

However, if you had 1995 Section benefits that you decided to move to the 2008 Section as part of the Choice 2 exercise, you may have the option to revisit this decision.

If you are affected and have received a letter about this, we’ve updated the information available to help you decide.

A member factsheet – including an example and answers to common questions (PDF: 232KB)A decision tree – showing how the age you plan to retire may affect which Section is best for you (PDF: 191KB)An illustrator - a tool to help you understand how factors like retirement age, joining date, final salary, and full or part time hours affect pension benefits in both sections of the Scheme (Excel: 61KB)

We’ve extended the deadline for you to decide to 18 June 2024. If you have any questions, contact mccloudchoice2@nhsbsa.nhs.uk and we'll respond within two weeks.

We'll share more information on this webpage for the following contingent decisions:

Opt outs

You may be able to reinstate remedy period service if you opted out of the NHS Pension Scheme because of the discrimination identified in the McCloud judgement. You may be able to specify the period of opted-out service you wish to reinstate.

If you owe contributions for reinstated service and you’re an active or deferred member, you may be able to pay these contributions via a lump sum or an instalment plan. If you’re a pensioner member, you may be able to deduct these from your pension benefits that are already in payment.

If you apply to reinstate opted out service, you may be asked to confirm if you received recycled employer pension contributions for the service you wish to reinstate. If you did, your employer will be asked to revisit these pension recycling arrangements with you.

If your service for the remedy period has been rolled back to the 1995/2008 Scheme up to 31 March 2022 and you're affected by annual allowance, you can find more information on our Understanding the effect of rollback on your annual allowance webpage.

If you have costs you think have been incurred because of the McCloud Remedy, you can find more information on our NHS Cost Claim-back Scheme webpage.

Finding out more information

You can find out more information about contingent decisions in the DHSC's consultation on proposed changes to NHS Pension Scheme regulations.