Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask Her Majesty's Government (1) what rate of interest is applied to refunds of public sector workers’ partner pension contributions if the pension holder retires without a partner, and (2) how much money has been refunded to such pension holders for each of the past ten years.

Partner pension contributions are refunded with interest to members of the Classic section of the PCSPS when they leave at or after age 60 with immediate payment of pension in full if they neither married nor entered a civil partnership throughout their service, or in part for members who have been married or in a civil partnership for part of their service. The interest rate applied is currently 0.25%.

Partner pension contributions can also be refunded in the 1981 Judicial Pension Scheme and the Judicial Pension Scheme 1993 (JUPRA). The interest rate applied in the 1981 Judicial Pension Scheme is 4% while the interest rates used in JUPRA follow those in the PCSPS.

Data on refunds in the PCSPS in the years from 2015 to 2021 (year to date) is as follows:

Refunds in years prior to 2015 occurred under a previous administrative arrangement and so data could only be collected to a longer timeline.

Similarly, administrators for the judicial pension schemes do not keep cumulative records of refunds awarded by year, and the second part of the question could thus only be answered to a longer timeline.