What is the McCloud court case about?
When the Government reformed public service pension schemes in 2015 it introduced protections for older members. In December 2018, the Court of Appeal in England and Wales ruled that younger members of the Judges’ and Firefighters’ Pension schemes have been discriminated against because the protections do not apply to them. This ruling is often called the ‘McCloud judgment’ after a member of the Judges’ Pension Scheme involved in the case.
The Westminster Government confirmed that there would be changes to all main public service pension schemes, including the LGPS, to remove this age discrimination. These changes are known as the McCloud Remedy and the LGPS (NI) rules changed from 1 October 2023.
Previously, in the LGPS (NI) when a protected member retired, their pension in the career average pension scheme was compared with the pension that they would have built up in the final salary scheme, had it continued. If the final salary pension would have been higher, their pension was increased. This is known as the ‘statutory underpin’.
From 1 October 2023, eligible younger members are also protected by the underpin. This does not apply to all members. The new underpin rules are also more detailed and it may mean that, in a few cases, a pension already in payment under the old rules may increase under the new rules.
The new rules will mean a significant amount of extra work and it will take time to review all the cases. NILGOSC will contact anyone whose pension is in payment and will increase because of the McCloud Remedy. We will only write to you if the new rules mean your pension will increase or if we need more information from you to establish if your pension will increase under the new rules.