In ASCL’s view, it is completely unreasonable to include pension ‘strain’ costs as netted off against all statutory redundancy payments, regardless of cap. A significant number of ASCL members are members of the LGPS. Many earn substantially less than the amount affected by the £95k cap. Strain costs currently apply to any such members facing redundancy over the age of 55 as mandatory on the part of the employer. Under these proposals all such employees would be denied access to their pension on a non-actuarially reduced basis without redundancy pay (and indeed discretionary pay) forfeit. It affects nearly all potential redundancies for those over the age of 55, including those whose total exit payments fall far short of the £95k exit cap.

In addition, ASCL believes that these changes to pension benefits are a clear breach of the 25-year no change guarantee. Moreover, it is further completely unreasonable that the proposal applies retrospectively to the whole-life pension rather than attributable only to any pension accrued in respect of service after the proposed regulations come into force. 

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