Public sector pensions are a niche but often underserved topic, largely because each scheme evolved separately, under separate legislation, with separate reviews and separate transitional arrangements. Despite that, most share a common recent history: from around 2014 to 2015, the government moved almost every major public sector scheme away from final salary calculations and towards career average revalued earnings (CARE) designs, usually with normal pension ages linked to State Pension age rather than a fixed age like 60 or 65.
That transition also created a shared legal problem across several of these schemes. Because older members were generally given longer to remain on their previous, legacy scheme terms purely based on their age at the time, courts later found this to be age discriminatory in the case widely known as the McCloud judgment. As a result, many public sector schemes — including the NHS, Teachers, Civil Service, Local Government and Police and Armed Forces schemes — have had to implement their own version of a "McCloud remedy," giving affected members a choice between legacy and reformed scheme benefits for a defined remedy period.
Beyond these shared themes, though, the detail varies enormously between schemes: contribution rates, accrual rates, normal pension ages, and the valuable extra benefits bundled in (such as ill-health retirement and death-in-service cover) all differ from one scheme to the next. Understanding your own scheme in detail, rather than assuming it works the same way as a colleague's or a friend's in a different part of the public sector, is essential for planning your retirement accurately. Use the five hubs below to find the guidance that applies to your own pension.