When the Government reformed public service pension schemes in 2014 and 2015 they introduced protections for older scheme members. In December 2018, the Court of Appeal ruled that younger members of the Judges’ and Firefighters’ Pension schemes were discriminated against because the protections did not apply to them. This ruling is known as McCloud, after one of the claimants.
The Government has confirmed that changes will be made to all the main public service pension schemes, including the LGPS to remove the unlawful age discrimination identified in the McCloud ruling.
In the LGPS, the Government is proposing to provide eligible younger members with a protection equal to the protection provided to older members when the Scheme was changed in 2014 (To do this, the DCPF needs to collect extra data (hours worked and service breaks) for all members. This data is needed from the date the LGPS changed in April 2014 up to 31 March 2021 (or earlier if the member left active membership of the scheme or reached their 2008 Scheme Normal Pension Age before that date). Any hour changes from 1 April 2021 should be submitted to us through the Hour Change process on the employer portal.
All employers will need to complete the spreadsheet below and return it to the DCPF by secure email.
McCloud standard data collection template for employers
McCloud notes to accompany the standard data collection template