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Hello from West Yorkshire Pension Fund,
We’ve been saying in newsletters for a while now that we’re going to move our services online, and this year we have!
Your 2021 Annual Benefit Statement is now ready for you to view online. You can find this in your documents on My Pension.
Your statement shows you how much your pension is worth as at the 31 March 2021. It’s really important to recognise though that this year’s statement does not include any changes to benefits resulting from the Sargeant Remedy process. You can read additional notes about your ABS on our website here.
Forgotten your log-in details for My Pension? You can reset them online at www.wypf.org.uk/mypension
There’s lots of other information about your pension available on our website too, along with our summer newsletter which you can read here www.wypf.org.uk/firefighters/newsletters/
Important additional information about your statement
As we’ve said above, your Annual Benefit Statement provides an estimate of your pension benefits built up in your current scheme as at 31 March 2021.
On 20 December 2018, the Court of Appeal ruled in McCloud/Sargeant that the transitional arrangements introduced as part of the 2015 reforms to the Firefighters’ and Judges’ pension scheme were discriminatory and, therefore, unlawful. The Government subsequently accepted that this ruling applied to all the main public service pension schemes.
The Government has consulted on the changes needed to remove discrimination from the schemes and work is ongoing to make these changes. This work is complex and will take time. For further information please see the Written Ministerial Statement from 4 February 2021: Written response from the Govt
We understand that it will be disappointing to members that the current values of this year’s statement will not be able to reflect the remedy choice between legacy and reformed benefits at this stage, however, the rules and systems are not yet in place to calculate benefits with discrimination removed. This means that it has not been possible to reflect the impact of the Court of Appeal ruling in this year’s Annual Benefit Statements.
Any projections on your pension entitlement are based on the assumption that your current membership will continue until your normal pension age. All currently protected members will be placed in the FPS 2015 for service after 1 April 2022 (the end of the remedy period). Due to the software changes needed to illustrate this, it will not be possible to reflect this position in projected benefits this year. Members due to retire before 31 March 2022 should be able to request an estimate in their usual way.
You can find more information about removing age discrimination on the FPS Regulations and Guidance website: www.fpsregs.org/index.php/agediscrimination-remedy/implementation
Kind regards,
Stuart Duncombe
Head of Communications
West Yorkshire Pension Fund
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