In 2015 the government made changes to most public service pension schemes, including the NHS Pension Scheme. These reforms did not apply to members closest to retirement, who stayed in their legacy schemes with ‘transitional protection’.
This meant that:
- members with full protection did not have to move to the reformed 2015 Scheme at all
- members with tapered protection could stay in their existing scheme for longer than members without transitional protection
- members with no transitional protection had to move to the 2015 Scheme on 1 April 2015
The Court of Appeal later found that this discriminated against younger members. The government is removing this age discrimination from public service pension schemes where transitional protection was introduced.
You can watch our video on YouTube to understand why the changes are being made and what they mean:
You can also read the video transcript (Word: 98KB) to understand the government changes to remove age discrimination from public service pension schemes.
The government is removing this discrimination in two parts
The first part was completed in 2022 with all active members now being members of the 2015 Scheme. This provides equal treatment for all active pension scheme members. Read more about your pension from 1 April 2022.
The second part is to put right, or 'remedy,’ the discrimination that could have taken place between 1 April 2015 and 31 March 2022. This is known as the remedy period.
Making a decision about the benefits you receive for the remedy period
If you were affected by the changes in 2015, you’ll be asked if you want to receive legacy scheme or reform scheme benefits for your service during the remedy period when it’s time to pay you your pension benefits.
Read more about when you'll make your decision about your NHS Pension benefits.
Rollback of your remedy period service
If you were a member with either no protection or tapered protection, any service you have in the 2015 Scheme during the remedy period will be returned to the 1995/2008 Scheme on 1 October 2023. This is called rollback.
Read more about the rollback of remedy period service.
If you’re affected by annual allowance, you can also read more about understanding the effect of rollback on annual allowance.