We want to remind that you have until the 11 October 2020 to respond to the Government’s consultation (This link opens in a new window) (This link opens in a new window) on the proposals to address the discrimination caused by transitional protection arrangements. More details of the background to the consultation can be found in our previous news story. 

The government’s proposals will apply to all pension scheme members who were in service on or before 31 March 2012 and on or after 1 April 2015, including those with a qualifying break in service of not more than 5 years. To check to see if you’re affected it’s worth reading the leaflet (This link opens in a new window) the Government has published.

The proposals provide affected members with the option to choose between their old (final salary) and new (career average) pension scheme benefits for service between 1 April 2015 and 31 March 2022.

To make this work, the government has suggested options contained in the consultation. Both options involve members having the choice between the legacy (final salary) and reformed (career average) scheme benefits for the service they have accrued during the remedy period (the period of service affected from 1 April 2015, with the consultation proposing an end date of 31 March 2022). The options are:

An Immediate Choice Exercise - most members would make this decision soon after the point of legislative implementation

A Deferred Choice Underpin – for the majority of members this decision would be deferred until the point at which they take their pension benefits (e.g. retirement).

For any affected members who have retired or will retire before 2022, they’ll be given a choice between old and new scheme benefits for service between 2015 and their retirement date.

Where possible the choice will be offered at retirement. Where this is not possible the choice will be offered as soon as practicable after legislative changes are implemented. Any change to benefits will be backdated.

We won’t be able to provide any more specific information on our Scheme until after the consultation exercise and the government has announced its response. We suggest you keep checking our website and social media platforms for updated information.