Recent questions in the House of Commons and attendant publicity has highlighted an issue of overpayment of pensions to retired public sector employees including those in the police scheme.
This is a complicated issue.
In essence, the problem has to do with the Guaranteed Minimum Pension, its calculation, index linking and impact on the individual’s Police Pension index linking.
Guaranteed Minimum Pensions were provided by public service pension schemes between 1978 and 1997. The problem will not affect any pensioner unless he or she is over State Pension age with service in this period and for whom the force have no record of a GMP.
It is estimated that between 1220 and 1830 (1% – 1.5%) police pensioners in England and Wales may be affected by this miscalculation. No overpayments are to be recovered but an adjustment will be made to the pensions of those affected in April 2009.
For those who require more details of the problem and its likely impact we have added a link to the relevant Home Office advice to forces:
To view the National Audit Office Report on errors in the Guaranteed Minimum Pension please use this link NAO report.