MHCLG consultation: Amendments to the statutory underpin

In June 2019, the Supreme Court rejected the Government’s appeal against a ruling which found that the transitional protection introduced to the firefighters’ and judges’ pension schemes in 2015 amounted to age discrimination for younger workers.

In August, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG)  published a consultation seeking views on changes to the LGPS resulting from the judgement. 

The PLSA supports the Government’s proposal to address the discrimination found in the McCloud and Sargeant cases by extending the underpin to younger scheme members with the underpin period applying from the 1st April 2014 to the 31st March 2022 and believes plans to implement a two-stage underpin process is practical. 

However, we are concerned about the impact implementing these proposals will have on funds, their administrators and employers, given the level of data and resource needed. We urge the Government and SAB to provide standardised guidance which we believe will be vital to ensure consistency in how the changes are implemented across the LGPS