Pension reform

In March 2011, Lord Hutton published his final conclusions on public service pensions reform, which the government accepted. The government wants to make sure that police officers continue to have access to a pension that is among the very best available. However, reform is inevitable because people are living longer. Many now spend more time in retirement than they did in work.

Long-term reform

The government understands how concerned people are about their pensions and is committed to ensuring that public service pensions will remain among the very best available providing a guaranteed pension level for all employees.

However, we have to acknowledge that people are living much longer and we need reform to make public service pensions sustainable. It is for this reason the government commissioned Lord Hutton to conduct an independent review into the future of public service pensions.

The government has been committed to reaching a fair outcome on police pensions reform, to ensure that police officers have access to affordable and sustainable pensions in the future which are amongst the best available.

The Home Secretary has carefully considered the representations made during consultation with the Police Negotiating Board. She has made a written ministerial statement and has now published a core design for a new police pension scheme as set out in the reform design framework. The pension reform overview gives a brief summary of the core design, and there is a list of frequently asked questions on the left hand side of the page.

You can see how this new design affects you if you are a police officer by looking at the worked examples or by using the pension calculator.

The verification report has been produced by the Government Actuary’s Department and contains their verification that the new scheme design is within the cost ceiling and sets out the data, methodology and assumptions used in determining the value of the Reference Scheme and the new scheme design.