Dear Brother/Sister,
The FBU has been engaged in a long campaign regarding the commutation rates for members of the 1992 Pension scheme.
The campaign has involved advising, supporting and providing legal assistance to those members involved. This was undertaken by means of a complaint to the Pension Ombudsman. The complaint was that the Government Actuary's Department (GAD) failed to review the commutation factors, within the 1992 Firefighters' pension Scheme, from 1998 to 2006.
GAD's failure meant that a significant number of pension scheme members did not receive the lump sum they were entitled to.
This has been a very long and detailed complaint which the FBU has undertaken on behalf of over 5000 retired and out of trade members. Because of the number of grievances involved the Pension Ombudsman decided to deal with this on a test case basis. The primary test case taken was a retired member, Mr Milne.
We have now received confirmation that the complaint has been upheld by the Pension Ombudsman and that GAD failed to identify its responsibility to calculate appropriate factors. It ruled that GAD should notify the scheme administrator of the appropriate factor and should compensate Mr Milne for the loss of use of the money and any tax liability.
This is clearly a very significant success for the retired members involved. The FBU will be discussing this in detail with solicitors and members will be given more information following this.
Best wishes.
Yours fraternally,
Matt Wrack
General Secretary
Circular ref
2015HOC0316MW
