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Actuarial Factors for Police Pension Scheme - June 2008
Although the provisions of the police pension scheme are the same throughout the UK the powers to make and amend the pension in Scotland are devolved to the Scottish Ministers. HM Treasury are providing additional funds to the Home Office to meet the costs for forces in England and Wales. We expect HM Treasury to meet the costs for Scottish forces and talks are ongoing with HM Treasury to ensure this is delivered. As soon as this has been resolved an announcement will be made for officers in Scotland
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 (pdf75KB) 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.