Business Services Organisation
Update on McCloud/Age Discrimination Remedy & revised completion dates
As you are aware NIFRS Pensions Department at HQ and the HSC Pension Administration staff have continued to work on the implementation of the McCloud/Age discrimination remedy. We have not met the statutory deadline and have reported this as a breach to The Pension Regulator. The 18 month timeframe from 1 October 2023 to 31 March 2025 was always going to be challenging, not only for NIFRS but for all the public sector pension schemes.
We have made progress; roll back has been applied to the majority of our Wholetime and On-Call members and this is now reflected on their Member Self Service Portal. Members who have retired from November 2024 have been given their choice on retirement. Work is continuing between HSC Pensions and the software provider to automate the necessary calculations.
Below is the revised timeline in which we endeavour to complete each of the cohorts. The members who retired most recently within each cohort will be actioned first.
| Cohort/Category of Member | Estimated Completion Date |
| Revised Pension Saving Statements | 30/06/2025 |
| Combined ABS/RSS for Active and Deferred Members (Deferred Choice Members) | 31/08/2025 |
| Pension Saving Statements for 24-25 Year | 06/10/2025 |
| Deceased and Dependants no Protection | 30/11/2025 |
| Ill Health Pensioners no protection | 28/02/2026 |
| Ordinary Pensioners no protection | 31/03/2026 |
| Deceased and Dependants tapered protection | 30/04/2026 |
| Ill Health Pensioners tapered protection | 30/07/2026 |
| Ordinary Pensioners tapered protection | 30/10/2026 |
| Deceased and Dependants full protection | 30/11/2026 |
| Ill Health Pensioners full protection | 31/12/2026 |
| Ordinary Pensioners full protection | 31/03/2027 |
Please refer to the information below to identify which cohort you belong to:
- Active members are staff still employed with NIFRS
- Deferred Members are staff who are employed and left the scheme or members who have left employment and pension benefits are not in payment yet
- No protection refers to members who were moved to the CARE Scheme with effect from 01/04/2025
- Tapered protection refers to members who transitioned to the CARE Scheme at some point between 01/04/2015 and 31/03/2022
- Full protection refers to members who did not move into the CARE Scheme prior to leaving or retiring.
If you have queries, please check the website first. This will help to support us by allowing is to focus our time and resource on delivering the remedy for you. Thank you for your patience as we continue to implement the remedy as quickly and accurately as possible.