Commons committee agrees Treasury should pay for pensions mistake

The Commons Public Accounts Committee has published a report today into public sector pensions with one of the key findings being that the Treasury should meet the cost of a£17bn pensions remedy, not scheme members.

The McCloud judgement determined that pension scheme members had been discriminated against on the basis of age in an error which will  require £17bn in additional funding to correct.

The report also highlighted lack of progress on closing the gender pensions gap, and a worrying lack of education about people’s own pension situation.

Garry Graham, deputy general secretary of Prospect, said:

“This is a welcome report from the PAC which backs up a number of things Prospect and other unions have been saying for some time now about public sector pensions.

“First of all is the travesty of the Treasury ministers expecting pension scheme members to meet the £17bn cost of the McCloud remedy to fix its own mistake. Perhaps having a well-respected cross-party committee highlighting their misjudgement will finally embarrass ministers into rectifying this error.

“The committee also point to the lack of government progress on correcting pension income differentials, particularly between genders. The gender pension gap is real and likely to have increased during COVID – hoping that improvements in the gender pay gap will eventually close the gap demonstrates the total poverty of ambition of the government in this area and the committee is right to highlight it.

“Finally, it is the government’s duty to ensure that scheme members are sufficiently informed about their own potential retirement situation. This means that they can make choices that enable them to have the retirement they deserve, free from financial worries.”