Pension Holiday - 18-20 Age Discrimination

[wmgw15]

Hi all, a friend of mine joined the Fire Service at 22 years of age and bought back 2.5 years worth of pension in the '92 scheme when he joined.

This means that come August this year he will have 30 years pensionable service but will not be 50 years old until February next year at which time he will retire with 30.5 years pensionable service.

Is he entitled to a pension holiday between August and February? Apparently he has been told that he won't be entitled to this as he elected to buy the years back himself and didn't physically join before the age of 20.

[bill.advanced]

Hi all, a friend of mine joined the Fire Service at 22 years of age and bought back 2.5 years worth of pension in the '92 scheme when he joined.

This means that come August this year he will have 30 years pensionable service but will not be 50 years old until February next year at which time he will retire with 30.5 years pensionable service.

Is he entitled to a pension holiday between August and February? Apparently he has been told that he won't be entitled to this as he elected to buy the years back himself and didn't physically join before the age of 20.

This sounds like one for nn.
But this case was based on the age discrimination act for those who retired from 2006, when the act received royal ascent. On the face of it as he joined at 22 years of age I would be minded towards a negative reply. But it’s a possibility I never considered. I would seek a written explanation why this has been refused. I would then send the reply to the fire brigades union official responsible for his or her perusal. It’s an anomalous situation, and may be open to interpretation. The only difference being those in service had no choice but to pay their dues, he had a choice when joining, they never had.

[bill.advanced]

Wmgw15 I added to my reply

I think the difference here is the 18-20 members were given no choice but to pay for an additional two years, your mate volunteered to cash in his 2.5 years through choice. But as I said he should seek clarification

[noisycat]

He needs to be careful here and make sure he gets the right information before making any decision. I asked my old brigades pension provider if I could stop my monthly payments at 48 and 6 months ,which is when I had 30 years service, to be told that I could, when in fact, I knew if I’d done that my pension would have been frozen until 60. I know it’s too late now, but why did he buy the extra pension, when he knew he can’t retire until he’s 50 next year ?

[wmgw15]

He needs to be careful here and make sure he gets the right information before making any decision. I asked my old brigades pension provider if I could stop my monthly payments at 48 and 6 months ,which is when I had 30 years service, to be told that I could, when in fact, I knew if I’d done that my pension would have been frozen until 60. I know it’s too late now, but why did he buy the extra pension, when he knew he can’t retire until he’s 50 next year ?

Phew - you done well to dodge that bullet Noisy!
After he joined the FS he was awarded compensation from his previous employment in relation to pensions which could not be split so he elected to invest it in the FS Pension Scheme which bought him 2.5 years. This happened very soon after he joined.
It's a good job he did this otherwise he would have been moved onto the 2015 scheme in April 2022 with just short of 28 years in the 1992 legacy scheme.
That's great advice regarding misinformation and the potential for having his pension frozen as a result - much appreciated!

[Stressed]

He probably bought it because the uninformed trainers at training school automatically suggested transferring pensions in.

[wmgw15]

He probably bought it because the uninformed trainers at training school automatically suggested transferring pensions in.

That would sound about right Stressed !!

Lucky though, there are a lot of people worst off than him that are being forcibly moved onto the new scheme in April 2022 including myself, but I'm quite lucky as I'll only be on the new scheme for 9 months. Other people that are a lot worse off have my total sympathy!

[bill.advanced]

He needs to be careful here and make sure he gets the right information before making any decision. I asked my old brigades pension provider if I could stop my monthly payments at 48 and 6 months ,which is when I had 30 years service, to be told that I could, when in fact, I knew if I’d done that my pension would have been frozen until 60. I know it’s too late now, but why did he buy the extra pension, when he knew he can’t retire until he’s 50 next year ?

Another reason why he has to get proper advice and clarification before doing anything. But I suspect he will have to pay until he retires. But if it turns out he should not have paid, I would reckon they would have to reimburse him noisy. Better safe than sorry. Good point noisy.

[noisycat]

Also, can I suggest any information he gets is in writing, so there’s no doubt. I was told over the phone, about freezing my pension, and if I had opted out, it may have been difficult to prove, that I was given the wrong information by the pension provider.

[notnarcissus]

Hi all, a friend of mine joined the Fire Service at 22 years of age and bought back 2.5 years worth of pension in the '92 scheme when he joined.

This means that come August this year he will have 30 years pensionable service but will not be 50 years old until February next year at which time he will retire with 30.5 years pensionable service.

Is he entitled to a pension holiday between August and February? Apparently he has been told that he won't be entitled to this as he elected to buy the years back himself and didn't physically join before the age of 20.

My advice would be to expect this to be resolved in the remedy. If this hasn't taken effect before he reaches 30 years of pensionable service then just keep paying.

Treasury are even considering a way to pay out a pension, after remedy, of above 40/60. This is actually against regulations but there are circumstances where due to this sitaution needing to be remedied the Government have got to come up with a fair way of resolving it.

This situation may also affect those who transitioned to the 2015 scheme and then transferred another pension into that scheme. The remedy has got to revalue those transfers in as if they were transferred into the 92 scheme. This is something that hasn't been possible since March 2007.