‘Appalling’ Snap Decision Affecting Police Pensions

It is “absolutely appalling” that police officers in the 1987 Police Pension Scheme are facing an immediate reduction in the lump sums they receive at retirement, South Yorkshire Police Federation has said.

The change was triggered by a Treasury decision last month to increase the SCAPE discount rate. Commutation factors determine how much cash an officer receives if they choose to give up part of their annual pension at retirement. Under the new factors, officers retiring now will receive almost 5% less lump sum for the same amount of pension surrendered than an officer retiring early last month. That change is expected to cost police officers thousands of pounds each.

South Yorkshire Police Federation Chair Steve Kent said: “It’s absolutely staggering. To do this without any notice whatsoever to people who are about to retire or planning on retiring is appalling.

“A lot of people, understandably, have contacted us about it, but we don’t know the legalities of it all quite yet. The National Federation is looking at legal challenges to this, which we obviously fully support.”

Steve urged officers who were retiring imminently to approach the pensions department, which will get them a revised figure as soon as possible so they can assess the impact on their finances.

He added: “This may not be on the scale of the awful effect of previous pension changes, but it’s yet another kick in the teeth when no one’s been told about it. It almost seems like we don’t matter and don’t deserve to have any kind of consultation. It’s absolutely appalling, and we support any legal challenge to this.”