09 December 2005
The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister has published draft regulations abolishing the so-called '85-year rule', which allowed some local government workers to retire before the age of 65.
It has also indicated that negotiations over protection arrangements for existing scheme members might extend into next summer.
Unlike other public sector schemes, the normal retirement age in the Local Government Pension Scheme has been 65 since the mid-1990s.
Under the 85-year rule, however, scheme members whose age plus years in service added up to 85 were able to retire on full benefits before then.
The government will scrap that rule in October 2006, local government minister Phil Woolas announced last week, citing a European Union directive on age discrimination and employment – which becomes law in the UK next October – as the rationale.
Dave Prentis, the general secretary of Unison, the biggest trade union affected, reacted angrily. He said: 'The law he is referring to does not yet exist. We will mount a legal challenge, as we believe the government and the Local Government Association have the law wrong.'
Protection for existing scheme members is also still in dispute between employers, the ODPM and unions. Unions want LGPS members to be treated 'no less favourably' than members of other public sector pension schemes, who this October were granted lifetime protection from an agreement to extend the pension age from 60 to 65.
Yet the ODPM's draft regulations protect only scheme members who are due to retire under the 85-year rule between October 2006 and April 2013.
These arrangements match those enforced and then immediately revoked last March, following the threat of industrial action.
The ODPM hopes that most of the disputes around the draft regulations can be smoothed out over the 12-week consultation, which started this week.
But a letter from the ODPM pension scheme division to all local authority chief executives dated December 5, suggested that discussions over protection arrangements could last longer.
'It may be necessary, with the agreement of ministers, to extend these discussions,' the letter warned.
'This could necessitate a further consultation on the proposed final form of the transitional protections, as agreed by the stakeholders. This could take place next summer, with amending regulations coming into force from October 1, 2006, as originally planned.'
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