Publish date: 7 February 2022
The McCloud remedy will remove the age discrimination that was judged to have arisen in public service pension schemes, including the NHS Pension Scheme. The discrimination resulted from allowing older members to remain in their legacy (1995 or 2008) scheme rather than being moved to the 2015 Scheme when it was introduced. The remedy is made up of two parts:
- To ensure equal treatment going forward, all active members of the NHS Pension Scheme will be in the 2015 Scheme from 1 April 2022.
- To address the inequality that has already occurred, affected staff will be offered a choice about their pension benefits for the period over which the inequality occurred.
The process for making this choice will be different for members retiring before and after 1 October 2023. All active members of the NHS Pension Scheme will be in the 2015 Scheme from 1 April 2022.
The 1995 and 2008 Sections of the NHS Pension Scheme will both close on 31 March 2022. All staff that are currently contributing to these schemes will be automatically moved to the 2015 Scheme on 1 April 2022. Every member of the NHS Pension Scheme will build up their pension benefits in the same scheme – the 2015 Scheme.
The change means members of the 1995/2008 Scheme who had full protection will automatically move from their current Scheme and start building up benefits in the 2015 Scheme from this date.
NHS pensions are starting to write to active members of the 1995/2008 Scheme who will move to the 2015 Scheme on 1 April 2022 with more information on the changes.
The letters include information for members on:
- still being able to claim 1995/2008 benefits at the same time as now
- maintaining final salary links – as long as members don’t have a break of more than 5 years
- maintaining Special Class / MHO status – as long as members stay within qualifying rules
Members can find all of this information on the NHS Pensions webpage using the following links
Your NHS Pension after 1 April 2022.
Changes to public service pension schemes
The new webpage Understanding your benefits in the 2015 Scheme also links to information on the 2015 Scheme and an updated video on the benefits of the Scheme.