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New Firefighters’ Pension Scheme - options exercise

This topic is intended for HR and pension administrators from Fire and Rescue Authorities only. The topic will run until 30 November 2006.

A New Firefighters’ Pension Scheme (NFPS) is being introduced for regular and retained firefighters recruited since 6 April 2006. Existing firefighters whether or not members of the Firefighters’ Pension Scheme (FPS) may opt to join the new scheme.

The DCLG firefighters’ pension team is currently working with the Fire and Rescue Authorities to prepare for the launch of an options exercise that will provide firefighters with the opportunity to join the New Firefighters’ Pension Scheme in January 2007.

The options exercise will deal with:

  • options for firefighters employed before 6th April 2006, who may want to transfer to the NFPS
  • calculation of pensionable service to be credited to a person transferring into the NFPS

We want to ensure that firefighters are provided with full information about the options exercise and would like HR and pension administrators from Fire and Rescue Authorities to use the forum to consider and to discuss the questions they expect firefighters to raise during the options exercise.

The DCLG team will read all posts and participate in the discussion as appropriate.

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Forum topic closed - thank you for your involvement

Posted by a mooney on 06/12/2006 - 15:18

The closing date of 30 November has passed for this discussion topic, and it will now be archived.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank all those who participated in the discussions. Your contributions were valuable.

The Options exercise will be launched on the 1st January 2007 and will last until 31st March 2007.

This forum was part of a pilot exercise and is being evaluated by the independent Hansard Society who would appreciate you taking the time to fill out their feedback survey on www.dclgforum.net/survey/part_2

New Firefighters' Pension Scheme

Posted by a mooney on 27/10/2006 - 09:15

Response from DCLG

Thank you for your contributions. We will respond more promptly to future queries.

Feena
The forms and documentation we are providing are not mandatory but for guidance. There is no reason why authorities should not colour code so that copies held on file can be identified easily. Other changes may be made to suit local circumstances, if necessary. Clearly we have invested resources in ensuring that the material we are providing is comprehensive and accurately reflects the new arrangements, so there can be no benefit in an authority departing significantly from what we are making available.

It would also be advisable when issuing the documentation to print on both sides of the paper to avoid the problem of linking name and signature. If for any reason a form continues on to a third side, it would be advisable to use folded A3 paper.

We will revise and reissue the documentation once the new scheme order has been made. Final versions should therefore be available by the end of November.

more

Marital Status for Options

Posted by finlay on 26/10/2006 - 13:23

Assuming that they adopt the same principles as per the Police then the transfer would be based on age, service and gender.

Marital status did not effect the conversion credits for Police.

Marital status for options

Posted by andyfu on 16/10/2006 - 15:58

Does anyone know if a firefighter's marital status will have a bearing on the potential service credit that will be available if transferring from FPS to NFPS?

Nomination Forms

Posted by sfirth on 10/10/2006 - 13:47

I have had quite a few nomination forms returned which have all been completed correctly. I have edited the Death Grant form so there is only space for two nominations, the rest of the form reads the same. From past experience in Local Government only a very small percentage of scheme members nominate more than two people and those are quite happy to attach a separate sheet.

The only slight problem I have had is that 2 of my new recruits have completed their details on the Nominated Partner form but then haven't gone on to nominate a partner. I am assuming from this that they have not got a partner but thought they must have to return the form anyway? The only way to get around this would be to say 'Only complete if you have a partner' but to me that sounds very obvious and others may take offence.

Re-joining Deferreds

Posted by Heather Currie on 09/10/2006 - 14:09

If a firefighter has deferred benefits in the FPS and rejoins the fire service, do they join the NFPS and if so will they be able to join the two together under special terms / time limits?

NOMINATION FORMS

Posted by FEENA on 06/10/2006 - 10:10

It seems that some scheme members will not read the instructions no matter how many times you tell them to.There may be another problem with the forms.On the second page there is no reference to who is completing the form except the signature.We have seen a couple of signatures which were almost unreadable therefore we had no idea of who was completing the form but for the first page.If the second page gets separated from the first then this would cause a problem.

Is it possible to amend the second page to identify the scheme member,perhaps asking the scheme member to print their name in block capitals?

ALL ASPECTS

Posted by geoff haslam on 04/10/2006 - 09:14

As there may be quite a few amongst us who don't have access to a peer group, would it be useful to have a registry of contact names, phone numbers, e-mail addresses etc for any of us who are happy to advise/share/discuss on any relevant issues?

OPTIONS EXERCISE

Posted by geoff haslam on 04/10/2006 - 09:02

Having been involved in several option exercises over the years, a frequently encountered problem occurs on transfers between services. If an option is challenged at a later date we would have no audit trail. Would it be possible to incorporate the detail in the transfer documentation.

A further question to be anticipated : will there be a further option opportunity if the member transfers to another FRS?

OPTIONS EXERCISE

Posted by FEENA on 03/10/2006 - 15:48

In the run up to the options exercise there seem to have been minor changes to the option form and the documentation which goes with it,however at some point there has to be a "final" version of all the documentation for use with the actual options exercise.

Do DCLG have any timescale in mind for these given that we are now in October?

How can we ensure that all Authorities will use the final versions?

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