Teachers’ Pensions

09 February 2021

The Westminster Government has published a report in response to the consultation on public sector pension arrangements including teachers' pensions.

Changes to the 2015 pension arrangements resulted in a legal ruling that the new schemes discriminated against certain groups of public employees. The Government refers to 2015-2022 as the ‘remedy period’.

The Government's report is published here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/public-service-pension-schemes-consultation-changes-to-the-transitional-arrangements-to-the-2015-schemes 

It is pleasing to note that the Government agreed to a number of recommendations raised by UCAC and other unions as we contributed to the consultation.

One issue on which UCAC and the other unions were very firm was the recommendations to the Government to ensure that teachers could delay their choice on their pension payments to the point the teacher receives the pension. Teachers' Pension refers to this as the 'Deferred Choice Underpin'.

The Government has agreed with this recommendation which will mean that members of pension schemes eligible for compensation for the period 2015-2022 can make the choice at the point of receiving pension payments, e.g. on retirement, receiving a final salary or career average salary pension for pensionable service between 1st April 2015 and 31st March 2022.

You are of course welcome to contact UCAC for more details on this but I would encourage you to get advice from a financial adviser so that you can make a decision on the option that is best for you.