Richard Fuller – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Fuller on 2014-06-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what estimate his Department has made of the annual cost of maintaining existing pension provisions for firefighters (a) who have achieved 20 years of service and are within 10 years of normal retirement age and (b) who have achieved 20 years of service.

Brandon Lewis

No assessment has been made of the annual cost of maintaining existing pension provisions for firefighters who have achieved 20 years of service. However, the Government Actuary’s Department have previously approximated that, ignoring the effects of any tapered protection, to alter the transitional protections to only apply to firefighters who, as at 1 April 2012, were aged at least 40 and had 20 or more years pensionable service would increase the capital cost of the 1992 scheme protections by around £50 million.

Any firefighter who is within 10 years of their current Normal Pension Age, as at 1 April 2012, will remain in their existing pension scheme irrespective of length of service. A greater proportion of firefighters are protected than for any other large public service workforce.