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Pension Reform

This page aims to give you information regarding the planned reform of the RCPS and associated scheme administration changes.

The Public Service Pension Act 2013 requires all public sector pension schemes to reform by:

  • Introducing new pension schemes based on career average earnings
  • Aligning new scheme pension ages with the State Pension Age

In addition to this, HM Treasury government policy is for by-analogy schemes to move into the scheme which they are 'by analogy' to, essentially a change of administrator.

The RCPS is by analogy to the Principal Civil Service Pension Scheme (PCSPS).

Cabinet Office, the department responsible for the Civil Service pension arrangements, introduced a new pension scheme (Alpha) in April 2015 moving some PCSPS members to Alpha to achieve “reform”. The Government have not permitted the RCPS to implement its own reformed scheme, instead requiring that – at some point - it closes and transfers into the Civil Service Pension Scheme arrangements, as a means of achieving pension reform policy objectives.

Discussions with government departments to deliver reform changes to the RCPS have been happening since 2013 and are continuing. There is no statutory deadline that RCPS reforms need to be implemented by, therefore in the meantime the RCPS will continue ‘as is’ with no changes being made to members pension arrangements. JSS will continue to administer the RCPS, and pension payments will continue being made by UKSBS.

Currently we do not anticipate any changes being made before 2025.

Civil Service Pension Scheme and Alpha – Reform and Remedy

Originally PCSPS members eligible for enrolment into Alpha were those that had more than 10 years to their scheme pension age as 01 April 2012. Members with less than 10 years were protected and so not enrolled into Alpha. This element was later ruled as unlawful age discrimination and reformed public service pension schemes must remedy the situation for affected members. This is commonly known as the McCloud case, named after one of the original claimants against age discrimination arising from the change.

The Civil Service Pension Scheme administrator have published information about the McCloud ruling and what they are doing to remedy it on their 2015 Remedy. - external link

The House of Commons Library have also published a briefing about Public service pension reforms and impact. - external link

It is important to note that the McCloud issue did not affect any RCPS members because the RCPS did not introduce a reformed scheme in 2015. The RCPS has not changed since Nuvos was introduced in 2007.

We have added some Fequently Asked Questions and Answers to our Further Guidance page.

Previous reform news

Previous news items have been copied into a single document, the original links are still available via the news page.

Archive News Items (PDF, 305KB) - opens in new window

If you have any questions regarding pension reform, please email them to: .

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