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News

Police Pension Scheme commutation factors ( 11 June 2009)

The Cabinet Secretary for Justice announced that the commutation factors for police pensions will be backdated to 1 December 2006. This follows consideration of the judicial review decision applied in England and Wales. Full details of what action needs to be taken on this particular issue are included in SPPA police pensions circular 2009/5

Police Pension Scheme commutation factors: Outcome of the Judicial Review by the Police Federation of England and Wales.

The revised commutation factors were introduced from 1 October 2007 and the Police Federation of England and Wales sought an earlier introduction date via Judicial Review. The judgement was that the factors should be introduced from 1 December 2006.

The Home Office confirmed on 1 April that the Home Secretary would not be lodging an appeal and as a result the revised factors will be introduced in England and Wales from 1 December 2006. The Home Office will be contacting the relevant police authorities once details on how the arrears will be paid have been finalised.

Responsibility for the police pension scheme in Scotland is devolved to Scottish Ministers who wish to consider the Judicial Review findings and the possible financial implications of this Judgement for Scotland further before deciding on how it will be applied in Scotland.

Equitable Life Compensation Arrangements

The Chief Secretary to the Treasury announced on 15 January that although it is not generally appropriate for the Government to pay compensation as a result of regulatory failure, in the light of the circumstances relating to the Equitable Life Assurance Society and in particular the disproportionate impact on certain policyholders, the Government will introduce an ex gratia fair payment scheme for those ELAS policyholders who have suffered disproportionately. Although there is no confirmed date when the scheme will commence the Government is seeking to make qualifying payments as soon as possible. This will be done once the Government have advice from Sir John Chadwick in determining which policyholders have suffered a loss attributable to the maladministration accepted by the Government and have beendisproportionately affected. Sir John Chadwick's advice will also take into account the position of the public finances as well as practical considerations.

New guidance on transfer values and pension sharing for PPS and NPPS (12/01/09)

Government Actuary's Department have issued new guidance on transfer values and pension sharing for the Police Pension Scheme 1987 and similar guidance on transfer values and pension sharing for the New Police Pension Scheme 2006 . The guidance covers transfer values for the Public Sector Transfer Club, statutory cash equivalent transfer values (for non-Club transfers), cash equivalents on divorce and pension debits and pension credits on divorce for the two schemes. The guidance consolidates interim transfer guidance issued on 28 November 2008.

Actuarial Factors Police Pension Scheme (PPS) - for September 2008

The Scottish Government announced on 9 September that the revised commutation factors for police officers in the PPS would be introduced with immediate affect. Police Authorities have been informed of the action they need to take by circular 2008/3 a copy of which is available on this website. The revised factors are being backdated to 1 October 2007 and officers who retired from that date onwards will require their awards to be reviewed. Police authorities will make arrangements to contact those former officers who will be due a backdated award.

Review of Police Injury Benefits.

A UK wide consultation on the above review has been launched. Full details are on our consultation page.

Full report on the outcome of options exercise.

Please use the following links to take you to the appropriate page on the Home Office website. From there you can access the documents. The full report of the outcome of the options exercise. Detailed information supplied by police authorities for all UK forces in a summary of the responses to the survey on the options exercise.

Pensionable overtime payments for part-time Constables/Sergeants

Changes are being introduced from 1 July 2007 for part-time constables and sergeants who work overtime with respect to pension contributions. From that date any additional plain time hours worked between the officer's agreed set hours and 40 hours will be come pensionable pay and as a consequence pension contributions will become due. Any additional hours worked at an enhanced rate or those taken as time off in lieu are not included. This service will accrue as pension service and will count towards the pension payable on retirement in the usual way. Consideration of applying this to ranks of inspector or above is currently being undertaken but for the time being the change applies to constables and sergeants only.

Additional backdated contributions can also be purchased for any qualifying hours worked during the period 1 July 2000 and 30 June 2007 and police forces will contact both serving and former and retired officers about this opportunity. There are time limits involved and there will be one opportunity only to request to pay some or all of the contributions due. The attached Guidance on Pension Arrangements for Part-Time Constables and Sergeants (pdf 75KB) with effect from 1st July 2007 outlines the new process and the details how officers can buy back previous service under this exercise.

Police Pension Scheme - New Stakeholder Arrangement.

Stakeholder pensions were introduced by the Government to encourage people to save for their retirement and have been available since 6 April 2001. The Police Service of Northern Ireland has had a Stakeholder arrangement since September 2001. This stakeholder has now been extended to cover officers across the UK. The new Stakeholder Pension Plan will be open to all officers who are members of either the Police Pension Scheme (PPS) or New Police Pension Scheme (NPPS) or neither pension scheme (although in practice it is unlikely that an officer who has opted out would wish to take advantage of it).

The AVC Scheme will continue, unchanged, for those officers who are able to take advantage of it i.e. members of the PPS or former members of the PPS who had set up an AVC before transferring over to the NPPS. Those with an existing AVC will be able to convert it to a Stakeholder if they wish.

Details of the Police AVC scheme can be accessed from the attached link Police AVC. There are certain differences between an AVC and a Stakeholder and it will be for officers to decide which of the two arrangements suits their individual circumstances better and, if they already have an AVC, whether there would be advantages in switching. Unlike the AVC Scheme, the Stakeholder will not be linked by regulations to either scheme and will not require any change to existing legislation.

Further information is also available from your police pensions administrator or on the Standard Life Police website.

Compulsory Retirement Age

On 1 October 2006 new compulsory retirement ages (CRAs) came into effect for police officers.

These are as follows:

for a constable, sergeant, inspector or chief inspector, 60 years
for an officer with any higher rank, 65 years.

The date may be postponed by the chief constable (in the case of an officer at the rank of superintendent or below) or by the police authority (in the case of an officer above the rank of superintendent). These ages apply to all forces: there are no longer separate CRAs for the Metropolitan Police.

Pension ages and CRAs are separate. The new CRAs will not affect the date at which an officer can retire with a pension under either PPS or NPPS. Officers will not be disadvantaged by the new arrangementsif they choose to retire as they expected to at their former CRA.

Full details of the changes are provided in Police Circulars 2006/6 and 2006/8.

Injury Awards

An officer receives an injury award where he or she has ceased to be a member of a police force and is permanently disabled as a result of an injury received without his or her own default in the execution of his or her duty. The award consists of a gratuity and a pension, both of which are related to the loss of earning capacity of the officer. The pension element is based on a minimum income guarantee, which is set against certain other benefits including 3/4 of any ill-health pension.

A Police authority must review an injury pension from time to time. This is because the injury pension is linked to the loss of earning capacity, which may vary with changing circumstances. However, although the actual amount paid may change, the injury pension cannot be removed entirely and so is payable for life.

The current ongoing work on an Injury Award Review consultation document is part of a wider programme, led by the Treasury, of reviews of public service injury benefits. The current review follows a similar series of reviews of the major public service pension schemes into their ill-health retirement arrangements. This will determine whether the current system of considering injury awards places too great a burden on doctors and whether it would be helpful to all concerned if there were a clearer division of responsibilities between the police authority and its selected medical practitioner in their respective roles when considering whether to grant an injury award.