Only this 'pause' after the recent recalculation of post-15 pensions that didn't go in the direction that the government had hoped, especially when it tipped the cost control calculation scales so heavily in its favour in the enabling legislation:
On 27 April this
article was published by
Professional Pensions regarding the Fire Brigades Union’s (FBU)
latest legal action against the Government relating to pension benefits delays. The main issues are:
- The FBU and other unions are challenging the “pause” to the implementation of the public sector pension scheme ‘cost control’ exercise which would have triggered an improvement in some, mainly 2015 Scheme benefits or a reduction in employee contributions (or both), and
- the Government’s assertion that the continuation of this “pause” is appropriate while discussions on how to do address the McCloud discrimination continue.
Last month, the Government said it would provide an update on the ‘cost control’ mechanism alongside its McCloud public consultation in the coming months (
HCWS 187, 25 March 2020).
McCloud and cost control mechanisms are both complex issues and our CE has been fully involved in the McCloud technical discussions with the MoD.
Improved benefits for firefighters after the December 2018 court win were delayed in January last year. Chief secretary to the Treasury Liz Truss said the pause would remain in place until the government digested the consequences of a different case relating to age discrimination, brought by firefighter members of the pre-2015 schemes, which the government also lost.
The FBU has called the delay an excuse for the government to pass on the cost of "a number of unlawful discrimination cases". By incorporating these extra costs, the FBU and unions argue the government could then claim that the cost of the scheme had risen above predetermined levels, therefore reducing employee benefits.
"Ministers know full well that they are in breach of the regulations which clearly state that if the cost of financing the scheme drops, then the benefits should be passed onto members."
In addition to firefighters, the outcome of the case could also affect pension schemes members working in local government, the NHS, teachers, police, armed forces and civil servants who joined on or after the start of the 2012/13 financial year.
Wrack added: "Refusing to accept this and pausing the process amounts to a dirty trick which now means many of those in the scheme will have had their improvements withheld for over a year - worst still is that this robbery has been carried out by millionaire ministers.
As we all expected, the government is most eager to implement changes that negatively impact the value of public sector pension, but not the other way around. The arbitrary linking of the government-triggered (and legally dubious) 'pause' on one issue as justification to slow the implementation of a court-ordered resolution of another is more than a little perverse.
With a government that so readily breaches its own legislation and defers implementation of legal judgements there is very little hope of things moving forward.