Business Services Organisation
*URGENT* FPS 2015 (CARE) SCHEME OPT OUT REVERSAL
IF YOU OPTED OUT OF YOUR PENSION SCHEME WHEN THE 2015 CARE SCHEME WAS INTRODUCED, PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING BULLETIN CAREFULLY.
We are aware that, due to the pension changes in 2015 and the subsequent introduction of FPS 2015 (CARE Scheme), firefighters may have chosen to opt out of the pension scheme rather than transition into FPS 2015.
Government has recognised in its consultation response that some members may have taken a different course of action had they known that continued membership of their legacy scheme (FPS 1992, FPS 2006 including special members) during the remedy period was an option. Government therefore intends to legislate for decisions such as this through what is known as the “contingent decision” aspect of the retrospective legislation due in October 2023. This legislation will provide the technical direction for how pensions are to be remedied following from the McCloud judgement.
Although the final policy on this matter is yet to be determined, and we cannot provide any guarantees that a particular case will be deemed a contingent decision, it is important that we make you aware of this so that you can take action if required.
Remedy Period
At this point in time, the understanding is that contingent decisions only cover what is known as the “remedy period” i.e. 01/04/2015 to 31/03/2022.
This means that should you have opted out and remain opted out beyond 01/04/2022 you may, under retrospective legislation, be given the option to buy back only the opt out service which occurred during the remedy period. Until the legislation is enacted, we cannot tell you what the cost of buying back service for an opted out period will be.
However, it is unlikely that the regulations will permit you to buy back service that is after 31/03/2022. This means, that your pension will remain deferred with a payment age of 60 for FPS 1992 and 65 for FPS 2006 (special members have a deferred payment age of 60), regardless of whether they buy back the opt out service during the remedy period.
If you opted out but would intend to buy back your opt out service for the remedy period, as you want to retire as an active member, then you will need to arrange with us to be opted back into the firefighters pension scheme on or before 01/04/2022 by emailing NIFRSqueries@hscni.net before 31 March 2022.
It would be helpful if you could mark your email subject line as ‘URGENT OPT BACK IN’