News
December 2023
In this section:
LGPS rule change – The McCloud Judgment
Information about the McCloud remedy is available on the LGPS member site. You do not need to take any action – if your benefits are affected, we will contact you in due course. Please note that, due to the large volume of work created by this change, we are unable to review individual cases on request.
Background
In 2014, the government introduced reforms to public service pension schemes and most active members were moved into the new career average schemes with later normal retirement ages. The government created some transitional rules for workers within ten years of retirement to protect them from the changes, on the basis that they had less time to plan for their retirement.
These changes were challenged by members of the Judicial (the McCloud case) and Firefighters’ pension schemes on the grounds of age discrimination. In July 2019 the Court of Appeal ruled that younger workers – those more than ten years from retirement – were unfairly discriminated against.
The rules of all public service pension schemes, including the LGPS, changed from 1 October 2023 because of the ruling. The changes are known as the McCloud remedy and they remove the age discrimination found by the McCloud judgment.
From 1 October 2023, all eligible members regardless of age are protected by the underpin. Not all LGPS members are eligible for protection. The underpin will protect the pensions of eligible members that they built up in the remedy period. The remedy period is from 1 April 2014 to 31 March 2022. Underpin protection stopped earlier if you left the LGPS or reached your final salary normal pension age before 31 March 2022.
What do you need to do?
You do not need to take any action. We will work out if you are protected. If you are, when you take your pension, we will work out if it will increase because of the underpin. Any increase is known as a ‘final guarantee amount’.
For most members there will be no increase to their pension benefits because the pension they built up in the career average scheme is higher than they would have built up in the final salary scheme.
For members currently paying in (Active members)
If you are a protected active member, we will include information about how the underpin might affect your pension in your 2025 annual benefit statement. We must issue this by 31 August 2025.
If you leave the LGPS, we will work out provisional underpin figures for you. We can only work out the final figures and any increase to your pension (a final guarantee amount) when you take your pension.
For members no longer paying in, but not yet taken their pension (Deferred members)
If you are a protected deferred member, we will include information about how the underpin might affect your pension in your 2025 annual benefit statement. We must issue this by 31 August 2025.
We will work out final figures and any increase to your pension (a final guarantee amount) when you take your pension.
For members currently receiving their pension (Pensioner members)
If you are protected and your LGPS pension is already being paid to you, we will work out if your pension will increase. We will do this as soon as we can, but reviewing all pensions in payment will take some time.
You do not need to contact us. Please be assured that we will contact anyone whose pension in payment will increase because of the McCloud remedy. We will only write to you if the new rules mean that your pension will increase.