We’ve previously informed you of the outcome of the legal case brought by members of the Judicial and Firefighters’ pensions schemes, which found that the transitional protection arrangements contained within the schemes were discriminatory.

Following the judgment, the Government announced that the ruling will apply to all the main public service schemes, including the Teachers’ Pension Scheme, and has confirmed that any resulting changes to pension arrangements will apply to all members with relevant service, whether or not they have lodged legal claims.

The Government is continuing to develop changes that will address the identified discrimination. At this stage it’s too early to speculate on the outcome of this work, but the Government has committed to ensure every member is treated equally, and that members can keep benefits that they have already accrued.

In the coming weeks, the Department for Education will begin technical discussions with unions, employer organisations and other key stakeholders to factor their views into the proposals. Those discussions will focus on the work the Government has done to identify possible solutions and to inform a formal public consultation that is expected to be launched later this year.

The public consultation will set out in more detail the Government’s proposals for addressing the discrimination, including who is in scope.  It will give the opportunity to provide feedback on the identified options. We’ll keep you informed as to when this is taking place.

To help us ensure members have the correct understanding of what is happening we’ve created a factsheet (PDF, 101 KB) (This link opens in a new window), and we’ll keep updating our website and the member and employer bulletins with additional information as and when we have it.