Many public service pension schemes are required to send remediable service statements to members affected by the McCloud remedy. We are aware that some of these schemes will have exercised or will look to exercise the discretion provided under the relevant legislation to send them to some members or classes of members later than the date targeted in the legislation (31 March or 1 April 2025, depending on the scheme).
We expect the discretion to have been exercised before the scheme’s relevant target date of 31 March or 1 April 2025. Before doing this and in accordance with the legislation, the scheme manager must have considered all relevant circumstances to determine if it is reasonable to issue the statement at a later date to a particular member or class of members. Scheme managers should also have a clear and realistic action plan to ensure the statements are accurate and issued as soon as possible. We expect the relevant pension board to have been engaged in this process and the affected members to be informed of the later date by which they will receive their statements. The scheme manager should keep a written record of any decision to exercise the discretion regarding a particular member or class of members, which includes a full description of the reasons for the decision.
If the statements are not issued to members by the deadlines set pursuant the exercise of the discretion, a breach of law report should be submitted to us. A breach should also be reported if there is reasonable cause to believe that the underlying reasons for exercising the discretion to issue the statements at a later date relate to breaches by the scheme of the statutory requirements for adequate internal controls, including data quality, and/or good record keeping.
Where we find that our expectations have not been met, we may investigate further, and if necessary, consider the use of our statutory powers to ensure that standards of good governance are being maintained.