Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to support police officers unable to benefit from the final ten years of enhanced accrual under the 1987 Police Pension Scheme.

The main public service pension schemes – including the police pension schemes – were reformed following the recommendations of the Independent Public Service Pensions Commission in 2011. This reviewed the public service pensions landscape and the potential reforms in depth.

The 2015 scheme offers valuable pensions, improves affordability and sustainability, and is fairer to lower and middle earners. It is backed by the taxpayer, index-linked, and offers guaranteed benefits on retirement. Police officers, like the firefighters and the armed forces, also benefit from a normal pension age in the 2015 scheme of age 60, while other public service schemes have a normal pension age aligned to State Pension Age.

The 2015 scheme introduced valuable protections for the benefits that members have accrued in their legacy schemes (including the 1987 pension scheme): protecting the point at which they can draw those legacy benefits, maintaining a link to their final salary against their pensionable service and where applicable, a link to the enhanced accrual rate.