Public Service Pensions and Judicial Offices [HL] Bill

Written evidence submitted by Marc Briscoe (PSPB02)

Public service pension bill

Good afternoon.

I feel it right and proper that I voice my concerns regarding the impending disaster that is likely to occur should the government proceed with this pensions bill. This will mainly concern police officers. For transparency, I am a serving police officer.

I will be one of the pension challengers that after having been placed legally back into the PPS 1987 scheme, come March this year will find myself back in the CARE scheme. I will then, by default find myself caught in the already discussed pension trap. Due to my age, I will lose out financially compared to that of my older colleagues. I won’t labour the point as most people now understand the pension trap and how it occurs.

My main concerns are that the government are about to pass into law legislation that they cannot and gave previously failed to justify to a court. And this country, it’s MP’s and Chief Constables are about to let them do so. At the point the clocks change, we will be in the pensions trap and therefore being discriminated against under Equality Act. I feel it important to emphasise that we will look to bring a further challenge to court and in all likelihood, will win. As nothing has changed. The target of our previous case were the famous ‘transitional arrangements’. This will not be the focus of our case next time round. What we didn’t challenge last time will be challenged. And that is the pension trap.

The pension trap is clear, obvious and has been discussed by pension experts and lawyers. If the government proceed and pass the bill and are then challenged, they will most likely lose and this country will be forced to payout for their incompetence and arrogance. It would be naive of me to think that I, in the long run won’t pay for their mistake as well. I’m sure by adjusting a ‘cost cap mechanism’, the police pension scheme will be targeted in some way to help pay off the debt.

To summarise, it is not appropriate to simply acknowledge the pension trap and move on like ‘business as usual’. Not when the sole objective is to help tighten the public purse, as it is they and therefore us that will shoulder the losses.

Yours faithfully,

Marc Briscoe.

January 2022