Retired officials affected by botched Civil Service Pension Scheme reforms introduced 10 years ago could have to wait a further two years to finalise their entitlements, it has emerged.
The controversial 2015 public sector pension reforms, which also affected firefighters and local government workers, were declared illegal on the grounds of discrimination following a legal challenge known as the McCloud judgment.
Under the fix worked up by previous Conservative administrations – estimated to cost in excess of £19bn – civil servants and other public sector workers impacted by the 2015 reforms will be asked to choose how they want their pensions entitlement to be calculated.
Effectively, they can choose between having their benefits calculated under legacy schemes the 2015 reforms replaced or the Alpha scheme, which was introduced in April 2015 as part of the reforms.
Around 400,000 Civil Service Pension Scheme members are thought to have been affected by the 2015 reforms. Some will be many years from retirement, while others will have already retired. Recent civil service statistics reports suggest that between 8,000 and 10,000 serving civil servants retire every year. Thousands more former officials are likely to begin receiving their pensions every year.
Under a timeline indicated in the Public Service Pensions and Judicial Offices Act 2022, public sector pension scheme members who are affected by the 2015 reforms and who have already retired were due to receive their personalised options on the remedy by 31 March this year.
My Civil Service Pension operates the Civil Service Pension Scheme on behalf of scheme manager the Cabinet Office. Last week, it announced that while some retired scheme members would get their so-called "Immediate Choice Remediable Service Statement" detailing their options by the end of next month, others could face a wait of up to two years.
It said: "A variety of factors make some pension calculations more complex. As a result, we will not be able to issue an RSS to all remedy affected members by 31st March 2025. We are committed to processing these as efficiently as possible."
MyCSP added that the remedy scheme had "discretion" to extend beyond the March 31 delivery date "in cases where members have more complex records".
Civil service union PCS said it had been told that only around half of the retired civil servants affected by the 2015 reforms would get their RSS in the coming weeks.
"PCS has been informed by the Cabinet Office that a large number of the affected retired scheme members will not receive their packs within this period due to factors which make the calculations more complex," the union said.
"PCS has made clear that this is disappointing news for many civil service pensioners and that we will be carefully monitoring the progress of the 2015 remedy."
A Cabinet Office spokesperson said: "We appreciate this may be disappointing to some individuals, but we must ensure complex cases are handled carefully."
Fallout from the McCloud judgment has continued at a steady pace since ministers decided not to challenge a 2018 Court of Appeal decision endorsing earlier findings of discrimination.
Most recently, unions including the Fire Brigades Union and PCS have unsuccessfully argued that the the cost of the McCloud remedy should be borne by the government, rather than factored into affordability valuations of existing schemes. In July last year, PCS said it was keen to take the issue to the Supreme Court.
In 2021, members of parliament's Public Accounts Committee said the age-related discrimination issue at the heart of the McCloud judgment and the cost-control mechanism introduced for public sector pensions under the 2015 reforms had “undermined trust” between public sector employers, scheme members and the Treasury.
At that time, the cost of the McCloud remedy was understood to be £17bn. Last year, the Whole of Government Accounts for 2021-22 suggested the figure had risen to £19bn.
This story was updated at 3pm on 4 February 2025 to include a quote from the Cabinet Office