Amendments to the Firefighters’ Pension Schemes from 1 April 2019

A change has been made to the 1992 Firefighters’ Pension Scheme and the Firefighters’ Compensation Scheme. This change came into effect from 1 April 2019.

The 1992 scheme and the compensation scheme rules on survivors’ pensions have been changed following a legal judgment. This change removes the restriction on service from 6 April 1988 used in the calculation of a survivor’s pension to a civil partner or same-sex marriage and is applied retrospectively.

This has the following effect:

• If you are a firefighter member (whether you are active, have left or retired) and in a civil partnership or same sex marriage you do not need to do anything. The survivors’ pension payable on your death will automatically be calculated based on your full service with no restrictions applied.
• If you are in receipt of a
  • Firefighter survivors’ pension from the 1992 scheme, and/or
  • Survivors’ pension from the compensation scheme
  and were in a civil partnership or same-sex marriage, your pension may have been calculated based on restricted service from 6 April 1988 only. Your pension in payment may need to re-calculated to include the firefighter member’s full service.
• If a family member or friend, who has subsequently died, was in receipt of
  • Firefighter survivors’ pension from the 1992 scheme, and/or
  • Survivors’ pension from the compensation scheme
  as a result of being in a same-sex marriage or civil partnership with a member of the Firefighters’ scheme, the pension may have been calculated based on restricted service from 6 April 1988 only.

If you believe that you or someone you know may be affected by these changes you should contact [email protected] for further information.