Bromley Council is taking steps to address the gender pension gap within its pension scheme, aiming to improve retirement outcomes for women. The move comes in response to government consultations and a growing awareness of inequalities within the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS).

While 70% of LGPS members are women, a significant disparity exists between men and women's average pensions, primarily due to career gaps for caring responsibilities. The Assistant Director: Pensions Shared Service advised that initial work was being undertaken to identify potential claimants, but no action could be taken until the law had changed.

The Bromley Council Local Pension Board met on Tuesday 4 November 2025, where training on recent legislation updates included discussion of the 'Access and Fairness' consultation, which seeks to address the gender pensions gap. This consultation includes proposals to make authorised unpaid absences under 31 days automatically pensionable, update rules on buying back pension lost during unpaid breaks exceeding 30 days, and ensure additional maternity, adoption, and shared parental leave without pay are pensionable, with costs borne by the employer.

The government aims to ease breaks taken by pension scheme members, offering more opportunities to buy back lost membership due to maternity leave. It was also planned to improve reporting on those who chose to 'opt out' of Pension Scheme membership with a view to identifying barriers to inclusion and increasing retirement income across all demographic groups into the future. Plans also include improved reporting on those opting out of the pension scheme to identify inclusion barriers and boost retirement income across demographics.

The 'Access and Fairness' consultation also addresses inequalities in survivor benefits and death grants. Proposals include:

  • Equalising survivor pension calculations for all marriages and civil partnerships, regardless of gender or sexual orientation.
  • Removing the requirement for signed nomination forms for qualifying cohabitee survivors, retrospectively applied to those who left the scheme between 1 April 2008 and 31 March 2014.
  • Removing the age 75 cut-off for death grant eligibility, backdated to 1 April 2014.
  • Removing the requirement to pay death grants to personal representatives if unpaid within two years.

The Minutes of the Meeting held on 29 July 2025 show that at the previous meeting, the Assistant Director: Pensions Shared Service gave a presentation on government consultations.

The board members present at the Tuesday 4 November 2025 meeting included Gill Slater, David Kellond, Emma Downie, and Lesley Rickards.