On the go: The Public and Commercial Services Union has warned that former civil servants who retired early for health reasons are not being paid what they are owed under the McCloud remedy, and has called on the Cabinet Office to apply the same fix recently agreed with firefighters.
As first reported by Civil Service World, the PCS has warned that a “small number” of civil service pension scheme members who retired after the public sector reforms of 2015 for reasons of ill-health have yet to have their pensions adjusted to properly account for the McCloud ruling.
“In most cases, the rectification will take effect at the point of retirement when an individual chooses between reformed scheme or legacy scheme benefits for service from April 1 2015 to March 31 2022,” the union explained.
“PCS is concerned that there are members of the civil service scheme already in receipt of pension benefits, which must be rectified to comply with the McCloud judgment.”
A similar issue affecting members of the Firefighters’ Pension Scheme was resolved earlier this month when the Fire Brigades Union signed a memorandum of understanding with the Local Government Association.
Firefighters not receiving their correct pension, known as “immediate detriment cases”, can now expect rectification to occur within 90 days of an application being made to the Fire and Rescue Authority, assuming the FRA finds that the member is eligible.
“This result follows legal action brought by the FBU and representations made by the FBU in negotiations with fire and rescue authorities’ and the Local Government Association’s lawyers,” the FBU said.
“The result means that a significant number of FBU members could see a substantial positive impact to their living standards in the near future.”
PCS welcomed the agreement, and has called for the same treatment to be afforded to other civil service scheme members.
“Tens of thousands of civil servants have an interest in the McCloud changes, but this detriment only arises when retirement brings some alpha pension into payment and most of those affected will have been granted, or will shortly be granted, ill-health retirement,” it explained.
The alpha pension scheme was created with the 2015 pension reforms when the Principal Civil Service Pension Scheme was closed to new entrants.
“This is because other early retirements are more likely to have involved only payments of legacy pension,” PCS continued, adding that members in this position may have a legal claim to have their payments rectified.
“We believe it is unreasonable to expect this group, however small in number, to suffer detriment for an indeterminate period, and we welcome the news that the FBU has been able to reach an agreement,” it said.
“The immediate detriment issue has been tabled for discussion with the Cabinet Office.”
