Age discrimination remedy

From 1 April 2022 all members are building up pension benefits in the FPS 2015. For the period 1 April 2015 to 31 March 2022, members who are affected by the 2015 Remedy will be asked to make a choice between legacy scheme (FPS 1992/ FPS 2006 standard/ FPS 2006 special) benefits or new scheme (FPS 2015) benefits. That choice will be offered either at retirement, or as soon as possible after 1 October 2023 if you have already retired (or you are the beneficiary of a member who has died). Administrators have 18 months to give affected members their options.

In 2015, new laws introduced a new scheme for firefighters - the Firefighters' Pension Scheme 2015 (FPS 2015). These laws included protections which meant that some members of the existing schemes (FPS 1992 and FPS 2006) didn't join FPS 2015 either straight away or at all, depending on their age. Following a legal challenge known as Sargeant, the courts determined that the protections provided to members were age discriminatory.

On 19 July 2021, HM Treasury (HMT) introduced the Public Service Pensions & Judicial Offices Bill (PSP&JO Bill) to the House of Lords. This sets out in law how the government will remove the discrimination identified by the courts in the way that the 2015 reforms were introduced for some members (i.e. remedy).