The McCloud judgement

What is the McCloud judgement?
The reform of public service pension schemes in 2014/15 introduced new protections for older members. However, in December 2018, the Court of Appeal ruled that younger members of the Judges’ and Firefighters’ pension
schemes were discriminated against because the protections do not apply to them. This ruling is often called the ‘McCloud judgment’.

The Government subsequently confirmed changes will be made to all the main public service pension schemes, including the LGPS, to remove the age discrimination.

Will the changes apply to you?
The LGPS understand that the changes will apply to members who:

• were in service on 31 March 2012
• have service after 31 March 2014 (even if you have left the Scheme), and
• do not have a disqualifying break of more than five years when you were not a member of a public service pension scheme.

If you left the LGPS before 1 April 2014, you built up benefits in the final salary scheme only. These changes will not affect your pension. 

There will be no change to your pension until you take it.

Most members are unlikely to see an increase to their pension. Where there is an increase, it is likely to be small.

What happens next?                                                                                                                                                  The new Regulations have been approved by Government and took effect from 6 April 2023. However, we require the LGPS Regulations to be updated before any changes can be implemented. We do not expect this to be before October 2023.

You do not need to take any action; we will check all pension records and retrospectively apply the changes to qualifying members.

Please visit www.lgpsmember.org and search ‘McCloud’ for more information.