Pensions judicial review
PCS and 5 other unions have brought a judicial review of the government’s decision not to reduce members’ civil service pensions contributions which was heard at the High Court from 31 January to 3 February.
PCS, GMB, Unite, the FBU, POA and RCN were in court to seek judicial review of the decision taken by the government in 2019 to block pension changes which would have reduced contributions from public service pension scheme members.
Scheme valuations carried out by the government actuary revealed that future pension costs were significantly lower than expected. In the case of the Civil Service Scheme the advisory board recommended a reduction of 2% in the rates of employee contributions from April 2019.
The government blocked this reduction and over 40,000 PCS members have worked out how much they have lost by using our PCS pensions loss calculator. The average loss per month is around £53, which amounts to thousands of pounds since April 2019.
The lower valuations also reflect the impact of government pay freezes and limits over many years which have severely cut the value of civil service pay and result in lower future pension values. We now await the court`s judgment.
There was no indication from the judge at the end of the hearing about when we can expect a judgment. We will let members know as soon as there is any news.