McCloud judgement

Back in January, the Scheme Advisory Board (SAB) paused the cost management process due to uncertainty surrounding an on-going court case, known as the McCloud and Sergeant case. 

The case concerns the transitional protections provided to older members of the judges and firefighter pension schemes when the schemes were reformed in 2015, as part of the public sector pension scheme changes. On 20 December 2018 the Court of Appeal found that these protections were unlawful on the grounds of age discrimination and could not be justified.

On 27 June 2019, the Supreme Court denied the Government’s request for an appeal. The ruling means that the Court of Appeal’s decision will be upheld and the case will be returned to an employment tribunal for a detailed decision.

Since then, the Government has made a written statement to confirm that any remedy will apply across all the public sector schemes, these include schemes for NHS, Civil Service, Local Government, Teachers, Police, Armed Forces, Judiciary and Fire and Rescue workers.

Effect on member benefits

We appreciate that you may have questions about the effect of this judgement on your benefits, however, until a remedy has been determined by the employment tribunal all scheme transactions will be based on the regulations as they currently stand. This includes retirements, applications for ill-health retirements, and benefit projections.

We will keep you up-to-date with any further news once we know the next steps in the process.