With respect to the recent FBU announcement regarding their pension declaration obtained in court before Christmas, PFEW have not commented on this announcement for two reasons:
- This announcement relates to the FBU, its members and their court case. While it echoes the earlier statement regarding the police officers’ case, it isn’t about that case.
- A similar declaration was made in October in the Leigh Day Police Pensions Case, which PFEW covered in the pensions update in October.
In effect, there is no difference between the two declarations, which both go to the point that those members affected deserve to have been treated as if they had never left their previous pension scheme, which PFEW also covered in additional updates published on the National PFEW website during August and October:
https://www.polfed.org/news-media/latest-news/2019/pensions-update/
https://www.polfed.org/news-media/latest-news/2019/pensions-further-update/
As per these updates, how government will implement this remedy is yet to be decided and one of the reasons why PFEW, along with other staff associations, requested to become Interested Parties to ensure no further discrimination to our members and fairness in application of the remedy. PFEW have been in communication with government throughout this period, and have received a number of reassurances – including a Home Office fact sheet, and a direct letter from the Home Office dated 19th December – stating that the same treatment will be extended to both claimants and non-claimants, as regards being treated as members of the appropriate pre-2015 schemes.
We are also aware that some members have concerns in relation to being in the process of IHR or about to retire eminently, while being an affected member. The commitment government has given to treat all as being entitled to be treated as part of the pre-2015 schemes applies here too. There is machinery and legislation that will need to be put in place, and until then PFEW are committed to ensuring these officers’ cases are kept to the forefront of discussions, so that as soon as the machinery is in place those retired officers affected will be entitled to have their pensions adjusted.
