Civil Service: Pensions

(asked on 29th November 2021) - View Source

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment his Department has made of (a) the impact on members trust in the Civil Service Pension Scheme of defining the remedy costs to the 2016 valuation of that scheme as a member cost and (b) option of sharing remedy costs with scheme members.


Answered by
Simon Clarke Portrait
Simon Clarke
This question was answered on 2nd December 2021

Treasury directions confirm that schemes, including the Civil Service Pension Scheme, must take into account the expected impact of the Government’s proposal to remedy the discrimination identified by the Courts in the McCloud and Sargeant judgments when completing the cost control element of the 2016 valuations.

The remedy will give members a choice of scheme benefits for the remedy period. This represents an increase in the value of schemes to members. As the cost control mechanism was designed to assess changes in the value of schemes to members, it is right for this to be taken into account in the cost control element of the 2016 valuations.

The Government has not made a formal assessment of the impact of this on members’ trust.

The Government has announced its intention to waive any ceiling breaches that arise from the 2016 valuations, which means that no member will see a reduction to their benefits. This will be implemented through the Public Service Pensions and Judicial Offices Bill.

As this relates to live litigation, it would be not be appropriate to comment further.

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