IPSA response on a ‘redress payments process’ for members of the MPs’ pension scheme who are affected by IPSA’s response to the McCloud judgment.
In 2023, IPSA made changes to the MPs’ pension scheme in response to the McCloud judgement, to eliminate any age-related unfairness arising from the public sector pension reforms which took place in 2015. Impacted members have been offered a choice of whether to accrue benefits in the legacy final salary (FS) section or the reformed career average (CARE) section over a specified ‘relevant period’.
Because the MPs’ pension scheme sits outside of the legislation which has implemented McCloud changes across other public service pension schemes, it also does not benefit from provisions which will ‘smooth’ the tax treatment for members of other schemes. IPSA has worked with HM Treasury and HM Revenue & Customs to address this issue, and in particular the risk that members face adverse tax charges specifically as a result of a change to their benefits, which would not have otherwise arisen. On the advice of HM Treasury, we proposed a system of ‘redress payments’ which would mitigate these adverse tax impacts on members.
The consultation on this proposal was held between 19 October and 17 November 2023. We are grateful to all those who took the time to respond. Following the consultation, the IPSA Board agreed to proceed with the creation of a redress payments process, in line with the proposals set out in the consultation.
On 16 December 2024, IPSA laid before the House of Commons a set of revised pension scheme rules (HC 559), which established the arrangements for redress payments with responsibility for administration of the payments falling to the PCPF Trustees.
IPSA has continued to work with the PCPF through our joint implementation project to agree appropriate timings for the redress process, balancing practical considerations against the desire to provide affected members with certainty about their position as soon as possible. As implementation has progressed, we have worked with the PCPF to ensure that the Trustees have sufficient flexibility and discretion in the scheme rules to address unforeseen circumstances.
We have also continued to engage with HM Treasury, to confirm the funding mechanism for the redress payments; our intention remains that the payments should not adversely impact on the pension fund itself. We were pleased to see a commitment from the Government in the Autumn Statement 2023 that it would legislate to facilitate these redress payments through new tax regulations for the tax year 2024/25. We expect HMRC regulations to be laid later this financial year.