Croydon Council's Pension Board convened on 24 July 2025 to review the implementation of the McCloud remedy, which addresses age discrimination in public sector pension schemes following reforms in 2014 and 2015. The reforms introduced career average schemes and protections for older members, but younger members were found to have been unlawfully discriminated against because the protections did not apply to them. The McCloud remedy seeks to correct this by checking whether eligible members would have been better off in the final salary scheme between 1 April 2014 and 31 March 2022 rather than the Career Average Revalued Earnings (CARE) scheme, and providing a McCloud Underpin Addition to their benefits if they would have been better off.

At the meeting, the board discussed a report concerning the inclusion of remedial service information in the 2025/26 Annual Benefit Statements (ABS). The board was asked to give their views on the intention of officers to exercise the discretion on behalf of the Administering Authority to delay, for one further year, the inclusion of remediable service information in the ABS issued to members for the 2024/2025, for the groups of members identified in the report.

The report to the Pension Board (Implementation of the McCloud Remedy) stated that there were certain members who do not receive an ABS under the regulations and are affected, and that the McCloud remedy implementation phase would be extended to 31 August 2026 for these members.

The Pensions Administration team is working to be compliant with the implementation phase expectations for McCloud. There will be approximately 22,000 ABS's issued by 31 August 2025 and the majority will include the remedial service information as required. However, there are some members where the team is currently unable to provide the remedial service information in the 2024/25 ABS, so will apply the discretion to defer until the 2025/26 ABS. The exact proportion of ABS's that will not include the remedial service information in the 2024/25 ABS is not specified.

The Pensions Administration team faces several challenges in providing remedial service information for all members in the 2024/25 ABS, including:

  • Pension debits with effective dates after 31 March 2014: The regulations in England and Wales do not currently allow the debit to be adjusted as a result of McCloud protection.
  • Transfer in pre 65 or Club transfer in: The pensions administration system, Altair, is still in the process of providing a solution which allows the required information relating to the transfer to be recorded.
  • Remediable service transferred from a different public service pension scheme or LGPS administering authority: The previous administrators have not yet supplied final salary details for the remedy period.
  • Members who joined the LGPS after age 65 who transferred in remediable service from a different public service pension scheme: The regulations have not yet been corrected to introduce an underpin date for members in this group.
  • Service was concurrent within the remedy period: These members require manual adjustments prior to the generation of the ABS.
  • Querying service and service breaks: Officers are querying service and service breaks because they seem inconsistent, dependant on accurate information being provided.

The Pensions Regulator (TPR) has issued a statement entitled Remedial service statements delivery (LGPS) setting out their expectations for the Annual Benefit Statements for 2024/25 and how authorities can exercise discretion to delay the provision of remedial service information on the Annual Benefit Statements. The statement notes that administering authorities must notify affected members that the discretion has been exercised in relation to them in their 2024/25 ABS.