Met police firearms

[Techie1 + 2,024]

Scottish pensions authority is introducing a calculator to help demonstrate benefits.

Nearly ten per cent of police officers in Scotland are no longer paying into the force’s pension scheme, in a move which has been blamed on recent negative changes to the package.

Similar negative alterations were made to more than 14,000 young in service officers’ pensions across the whole of the UK at the same time.

As a result of the drop in numbers, authorities in Scotland are creating a new pensions calculator in the hope it will encourage people to continue to pay in.

Andrea MacDonald, chairman of the Scottish Police Federation, revealed the statistic at the staff association’s annual conference.

She said: “Like others, our pensions were dramatically changed in 2015 when the UK Government changed the law so that police officers would work longer and pay more for their pension.

“We warned at the time that if the cut was too deep, our members would vote with their feet and either leave the pension scheme, or not join it when they were recruited.

“In only a couple of years we have moved from a situation where virtually everyone was in the pension scheme to one where hundreds of officers are not.”

Mrs MacDonald added that there are now around 1,600 officers who are not in the pension scheme, and that she believes this is because of the expense incurred and a lack of information about the benefits of signing up.

She said: “I worry about these young officers and their families. Pensions are not just about retirement on completion of service. The schemes cover ill-health, injury, death in service, spouse and dependant cover.

“Doing our job without this cover seems far too much of a risk to me and I urge every officer not in the pension scheme to think again.

“The in-service protections and the significant employer's contribution plus financial security for you and your dependants, mean the police pension is the best investment you will ever make.

"I know recruits can often be under financial pressure but my advice to them is that whatever they do, join the pension scheme and stay in it.”

Responding to her at the conference, Scottish Justice Secretary Michael Matheson said that he agrees that the pensions are still hugely important.

He added: “I urge the service and staff associations to continue highlighting the benefits to every officer.

“To help officers understand what the new scheme will mean in the future the Scottish Public Pensions Agency has commissioned the scheme actuary to produce a specialised pensions calculator, this has been developed to give individuals a clear idea of the value of the scheme and has been produced in consultation with the police pension board which has senior SPF representation on it.”

This will be available to officers by the summer, he said.

A pension reform calculator produced by the Home Office in 2015 has been marked as “withdrawn” on the UK Government website.

Figures for how many officers have left pension schemes in England, Wales and Northern Ireland were not available before this article went live.

Thousands of officers are taking legal action to challenge the imposition of the CARE scheme and the manner in which it was imposed, but it is not backed by staff associations.

View on Police Oracle