This article is for members who have been contacted by the civil service pension scheme about their “immediate choice” under the McCloud remedy and who want to understand more about the process or who have specific questions about their next steps.
The civil service pension scheme began to contact members impacted by the immediate choice from January 2025, and it is expected that it will take at least two years to contact everyone in scope of the exercise.
The “immediate choice” arises as a result of the McCloud judgement, which was a Court Of Appeal ruling that the government’s reforms to public service pension schemes in 2015 were unlawfully discriminatory on the grounds of age.
The government is obliged to remedy the discrimination. The first step in doing so was to move all pension scheme members to the same post-2015 schemes from April 2022. This ended the discrimination from that point forward.
However, there remained a retrospective period (called the “remedy period”), from April 2015 to April 2022, where public service pension scheme members were treated differently according to their age.
The government must apply a retrospective remedy to this past discrimination. The retrospective discrimination is remedied in two different ways, depending on whether the scheme member has put their remedy period benefits into payment by 1 October 2023 or not.
If someone is in scope of the McCloud remedy and has put some remedy period benefits into payment before 1 October 2023, then their retrospective remedy will be delivered through the immediate choice.
The immediate choice simply gives these members the option of continuing to receive the same benefits as currently, or, if it would be better for them, choosing instead to have benefits based on their remedy service being in a different scheme.
If the remedy period benefits were paid based on the member having stayed in their original (legacy) pension scheme, then the immediate choice would give the option of those benefits being treated as being in the Alpha scheme instead (and vice versa).
The immediate choice will almost always result in an option between the member’s current benefits or benefits calculated on an alternative basis. Members will tend to keep their existing benefits if those are better and only take the alternative option if those were more beneficial.
You can find further information about the immediate choice exercise from the civil service pensions website.
Who is covered by the immediate choice?
Members who are (1) in scope of the McCloud remedy and (2) have put remedy period benefits into payment before 1 October 2023 will be covered by the immediate choice exercise.
You can check if you are in scope of the McCloud remedy here:
Am I Affected Remedy – Civil Service Pension Scheme
If you are in scope of the McCloud remedy and either fully retired or partially retired having put some post April 2015 benefits into payment, then you will be covered by the immediate choice exercise.
When will I get information about my immediate choice?
The scheme began to contact members covered by the immediate choice from January 2025. Under the relevant legislation, the deadline for providing this information is 31 March 2025. However, the scheme has contacted the regulatory authorities to explain that the information will not be ready by then in most cases. It expects to take another two years to get the paperwork about the option to members.
How long will I have to make my choice?
You will have up to a year after receiving the information to decide about your immediate choice.
Can Prospect support me in making my decision under the immediate choice?
Prospect is not authorised or regulated to give financial advice. But we can answer questions and otherwise provide relevant information that might well be useful in helping you decide under the immediate choice.
Can I do anything to speed up the process?
The pension scheme is contacting members as soon as possible. It will not generally be possible to expedite this process. It would be helpful if the scheme has your current contact details though, so it might be worth checking what information the scheme holds on you.
How can I tell which option is better for me?
Often it will be obvious that one option is more valuable than the other (e.g. both the pension and the lump sum you can take are higher under one option than the other). Sometimes it can be more complicated (e.g. the pension is higher under one option but the lump sum you can take is higher under the other). In more complicated cases there may be different factors to bear in mind. We will provide further information to help members in these circumstances shortly. Please contact Prospect if you are in this situation and need more support.
I am covered by the immediate choice because I partially retired before 1 October 2023. Can I revisit the decision about how much pension I put into payment on partial retirement?
The scheme will not generally allow members to revisit decisions about how much pension they put into payment on partial retirement. It may be possible to argue that you would have made a different decision about this but for the discrimination that affected you. Please contact Prospect if you are in this situation and need more support.
I am covered by the immediate choice because I was made redundant and put my pension into payment before 1 October 2023. Can my redundancy package be affected by the immediate choice?
Yes. For example, your redundancy package may have been capped at 6 months’ pay because you were over pension age. But if you have been in the other (Alpha) scheme you would not have been above pension age and would have received a higher redundancy payment. This would then be considered alongside the difference in pension entitlement.
I was in the taper protected group and chose to move to Alpha between April 2015 and April 2022. Can I keep my current benefits?
No. You can generally only be treated as being in either the legacy scheme or Alpha in the remedy period (and not both). If neither option is as good as your existing benefits, then contact Prospect for more support.