In December, The Fire Brigades Union won a landmark ruling in its dispute with the government over changes made to firefighters’ pensions in 2015. It signaled that younger firefighters on the new scheme would have to be put back on the previous pension scheme, and was fought on the basis of age discrimination. You may remember that some of you had grandfathering rights bestowed upon them, and were able to remain in their existing scheme due to proximity to normal retirement age. The government said it would appeal of course. But this announcement from Liz Truss is interesting. If it fails, it seems that remedial action may cost the Treasury £4bns pa.

Watch this space.. Pensions eh? Who said they were boring? Whenever I meet someone at a do and they ask what I now do, and I say ‘Pensions actually, a bit dull I’m afraid’, their likely faces usually light up. ‘No, no.. not dull at all!’

https://www.parliament.uk/business/p...1-30/HCWS1286/

My missus is in a group of police officers fighting the same decision, waiting to see what happens here. Another group fighting it are our Judges!! Who will rule on their case?

I only dread to think how lifetime allowance headroom/breaches will be calculated/recalculated, if benefits increase.

The sinister side of me is wondering how long it will be before we have another deviation in the Pensions; having saved a fortune going from RPI to CPI, I sense the next venture will be a mandated transfer from CPI to CPI(H)...

Oh no! Don't put me back on APFS05. I left a few years ago and have rejoined on APFS15. I love the new career average calculation from the comfort of level 35 PAS!

More info.

https://www.ftadviser.com/pensions/2...-pension-cost/

I think the judges’ case was considered alongside the firefighters case back in Dec because of the similarities of the 2.

Part of me is quite excited to see a penny-pinching short-termist Government skewered by their own legislation. However, some thoughts did spring to mind if they lose their appeal and have to put things right.

1. More pensions uncertainty would follow. My betting would be a new scheme introduced to keep the pensions bill down, with no grandfather rights and everybody even worse off than now to avoid inflating the pensions bill further (despite the fact that more folk leaving and fewer staying long enough to earn a pension means the bill going forward is already lower). Especially if the economy tanks post-BREXIT.

2. Any new scheme would potentially be contributory or have a lower level of annual accrual.

3. Played out across the public sector, if the economy does tank with job losses, wage freezes and generally more fiscal misery, the public wouldn’t take kindly to being told the government has to find an extra £4Bn to sort out a pensions Mess. Would this see a renewed campaign against public sector pensions? If the government is looking to rebuild its popularity ahead of an election, this would be one way. Misery for all!

4. If forced to review the AFPS 15 measures, what else would be cut to pay for it? Well, depending which bit of the budget pensions come out of, I can see more personnel cuts, making life even harder for those left.

In short, much like bags of smoke, this could be a double-edged sword. I’ll happily go back to 75, but the wary cynic in me says it won’t be that simple.

You wouldn’t. I was assuming that more still in service and compulsorily transitioned, will have done so from 05 by now, that’s all. The remedial work required is going to be mind boggling.

It relates to the public sector, not just AFPS.

It would really useful if a Pension Calculator was produced to show the differences between 75/15 and pure 75 (other combinations apply too, of course!) assuming we will get a choice of reverting, or not.....

It would be futile.

I don’t know if HMG will simply authorise restitution or go down the compensation route. The possibilities are mind boggling. I have no doubt that many will have been severely financially disadvantaged. The opportunity cost is a major major exercise in its own right. I suspect HMG and MoD will try to fudge it.

The granular detail you can go down to is as specific as the impact of leaving, getting divorced, experiencing a PSO or child maintenance payments, or an actuarial calculation and it being made redundant.

If you go back to 75 and your accrual is different (in terms of date and profile) that has an impact on AA and LTA (probably unkindly so), and what about those who left because the pension got rubbish all of a sudden?

It’s a disaster.

Just run the current calculator with your current expected dates. And for 75/05 only make sure you are aged 45 or older on 1 April 2012 !