2015 Remedy McCloud - Public Consultation FAQs

The consultation is to put in place the scheme regulations to give the scheme manager the power to put right the discrimination identified following the introduction of the 2015 reformed public service pension schemes, alpha for the Civil Service.

This will allow the scheme administrator (MyCSP) to start offering ‘remedy’ options for all in-scope members, after 1 October 2023. This follows many months of planning and work developing the systems needed to carry out this work. The consultation covers the proposed new Civil Service Pension Scheme regulations that will allow for the 2015 Remedy (McCloud) work to be carried out.

Members will be given the choice between legacy pension scheme benefits (classic, classic plus, premium and nuvos) or pension benefits equivalent to those available under the 2015 reformed scheme (alpha) for service during the period 1 April 2015 to 31 March 2022.  

We will give members a choice of pension benefits for those 7 years when they retire.  For eligible members who already have a pension in payment a choice will be offered as soon as is practical after 1 October 2023.

The proposed scheme regulations aim to cover all aspects of members' pension benefits and rights that may be affected by the discrimination and the remedy process.

It was always planned to do this work in 2 parts: the first part happened on 1 April 2022 when all current Civil Servants were put into a single scheme (alpha) and classic, classic plus, premium and nuvos were closed.

This second part concerns the treatment of a member's pension rights built up between 1 April 2015 and 31 March 2022. To begin with, we will put all members who were placed in alpha on or after 1 April 2015 into their appropriate legacy scheme (classic, classic plus, premium or nuvos) for this period. This will put all affected members in the position they were in before the discrimination happened

The main reason is the size of the task: the 2015 Remedy (McCloud) affects all Public Service Pension Schemes who introduced reformed schemes on or after 1 April 2015. For Civil Service Pensions this is over 1.5million members, with over 400,000 members in scope of the remedy and over 330 employers.

HM Treasury has been overseeing the delivery programme across all schemes. They have led on the legislative changes needed by introducing the Public Service Pensions and Judicial Offices Act 2022 (PSPJOA).  This Act sets out the framework for how schemes must carry out the remedy for their members.

In addition to the HM Treasury legislation, HMRC is introducing new tax legislation to make a number of technical changes to the tax treatment of those impacted by the remedy. It aims to put people, as far as possible, in the tax position they would have been in, had the discrimination not happened. It does not apply more widely.

This is part of the government’s remedy design. When the proposed scheme regulations come into force, the PSPJO Act directs that all members who were put into alpha on or after 1 April 2015 are returned to their former (legacy) scheme, known as rollback.  This removes any difference in treatment in terms of scheme membership for the remedy period. The remedy policy and scheme regulations are designed to operate from this starting point. This was the subject of a public consultation in 2022.

To give members affected by the remedy, unions and any other interested parties the opportunity to review and comment on the scheme regulations and the policy behind the remedy solutions.

We believe that the proposed scheme regulations and policy behind the regulations are fair and will remove the discrimination, by allowing members the choice between their Legacy scheme or 2015 reformed scheme for the 7 year remedy period.

We may not have thought of everything, so this is an opportunity for others to contribute their thoughts whether that be to agree or to raise something new. We are extremely keen to receive feedback from members and the public to help shape the regulations that are put in place.

Yes. An equality impact assessment has been carried out to accompany the draft regulations, this has been published with the proposed scheme regulations.

The consultation will be open for 10 weeks, running until 14 May 2023. When the consultation closes all the responses will be reviewed and any matters that need further thought or clarification will be addressed and this may mean amending the proposed regulations. A full consultation response will be issued in the summer.