Mccloud Northern Ireland (Addressing discrimination – amendments to the statutory underpin) – PLSA Consultation Response

The PLSA supports examining alternative suggestions to ensure fairness in the implementation of the McCloud judgement in Northern Ireland. Since the earlier related 2020 consultations in England and Wales and in Scotland, an additional potential solution has emerged, which would limit the period when final salary is utilised for the underpin period to 2022, rather than at the time of retirement.

The Department for Communities (DfC) proposed changes to the underpin will be a significant exercise for administrators and employers, given the considerable amount of resource and data needed. Employers, some of whom may no longer be in the scheme, will need to provide information on final salaries going forward for a period of up to 50 years that will require a retrospective data collection on salary and contractual hours going back to 2015. 

Standardised guidance will be vital in ensuring consistency in how the changes are implemented across the LGPS. We urge the DfC to develop instructions for administrators on how to treat member queries and on what should be done in the event that they cannot collect all of the data needed to do the necessary calculations to implement the McCloud Judgement.