Police Pension Scheme

What is the Police Pension Scheme?

The Police Pension Scheme (PPS) in England and Wales is a contributory, defined benefit occupational pension open to police officers which pays a promised income in retirement.

The scheme is administered locally by individual police forces. The National Police Chiefs’ Council publishes a list of administrators that members can use to confirm the relevant administrator for their police force.

The schemes

There are three different police pension schemes.

• The 1987 scheme, which was open to new entrants until 6 April 2006, provides pension benefits based on a members’ final salary and their length of service.
• The 2006 scheme, which was open to new entrants from 6 April 2006 until 1 April 2015, provides pension benefits based on a members’ final salary and their length of service.
• The current scheme, the 2015 scheme, was introduced on 1 April 2015. All active members on that date transferred to the 2015 scheme unless they qualified for ‘transitional protections’. This scheme provides pension benefits based on career average earnings rather than final salary. This means that pension benefits are calculated according to average earnings over a member’s career. From 1 April 2022, all active members of the PPS build up their pension benefits in the 2015 scheme.

McCloud remedy

The government reformed public service pensions in 2014 and 2015. Like members of other public service schemes, police officers were transferred to the reformed career average scheme. The government decided that members closest to retirement would not be affected by the reforms. In many cases these members could stay in the existing ‘legacy’ schemes rather than moving to the newer ‘reformed’ schemes.

In 2018, the government was found to have discriminated against younger members of public service pension schemes. The judgment, known as McCloud, resulted in the government making changes to public service pension schemes to remedy discrimination which had taken place.

More information on the McCloud remedy is available in the Library briefing Public service pensions – response to McCloud.

Devolved legislatures

Policy on occupational pensions is reserved to the UK Parliament. However, Scottish Ministers have the power to make regulations for police pensions in Scotland.

Police pension policy is devolved to Northern Ireland and is the responsibility of the Northern Ireland Department of Justice. The scheme is administered by the Northern Ireland Policing Board. Pensions policy as a whole is a devolved issue.

Further information

For further information on the development of the PPS, see the Library briefings:

• Police pensions – background (September 2014)
• Police Pensions – 2015 reforms (March 2015)