Between 6 March 2023 and 29 May 2023 the Ministry of Defence carried out a public consultation on the policies which will inform the amendments required to the Armed Forces Pension Scheme (AFPS) rules to implement the retrospective remedy for affected members.
The Ministry of Defence consulted the considered the responses from the consultation, together with feedback received during and after presentations to serving Armed Forces personnel and to third sector organisations representing the interests of Armed Forces personnel and veterans.
Original consultation
Consultation description
The Public Service Pensions and Judicial Offices Act 2022 provides an overarching framework to allow public service pension schemes to remedy the impact of unlawful age discrimination that had arisen under certain transitional arrangements put in place when these schemes were reformed between 2014 and 2016.
Secondary legislation is also required to amend the rules of each affected public service pension scheme to implement the remedy for their members. The remedy was designed to be delivered in two stages: the first to bring the discrimination to an end (the prospective remedy) from 1 April 2022, and the second, to be implemented on 1 October 2023, to remedy the discrimination that had taken place (for the Armed Forces) between 1 April 2015 and 31 March 2022 (the retrospective remedy).
In the Armed Forces pension schemes, the prospective remedy was implemented through the Armed Forces Pensions (Amendment) Regulations 2022, which came into effect on 1 April 2022. Since that date, all serving service personnel have been members of the Armed Forces Pension Scheme 2015 (AFPS 15).
The second stage is to deliver the retrospective remedy. This consultation document sets out the background to this part of the remedy and an explanation of legislative and policy changes required to implement it. The retrospective remedy is complex and affects people in different ways. Input is welcomed from scheme members and pension stakeholders to ensure that the final regulations and policies are based on the broadest possible understanding of how this remedy will affect members of our pension schemes.
The divorce and re-joiners enclosures are now live and complete the consultation on how the armed forces pensions schemes intend to implement the cross-government remedy, mandated by the Public Service Pensions and Judicial Offices Act 2022. The divorce enclosure outlines how pension sharing orders will be applied in the context of the pension remedy, detailing the outcome for both pension debit and pension credit members. The re-joiners enclosure outlines the policy position for those with multiple periods of service, be that in the regulars or the reserves or a combination of both.
