Principal Civil Service Pension Scheme

Transcription

1 Principal Civil Service Pension Scheme Consultation on proposed increases to employee contribution rates effective from April 2014: Background and further information October 2013

2 THE CIVIL SERVICE PENSION SCHEME Legislative background The PCSPS is a statutory pension scheme, providing pension benefits for Civil Servants and for those in offices or employments listed in Schedule 1 to the Superannuation Act 1972 (SA72) Section1(3) of SA72 requires Cabinet Office to consult with persons affected (i.e. members) or their representatives before changes are made to the scheme. In practice, Cabinet Office usually consults the Civil Service unions, as is the case here. Following this policy consultation, Cabinet Office will consult the unions on the technical wording of the amendments to the scheme rules. Section 2(3) of SA72 prevents any changes which are detrimental to accrued pension rights unless the persons consulted in accordance with section 1(3) have agreed to such changes. The current proposals are to increase employee contributions in respect of future service only and Cabinet Office does not consider that this affects accrued rights. The Civil Service pension arrangements The PCSPS is in three main sections 1 - the 1972 section known as classic, the 2002 section known as premium and the 2007 section known as nuvos. classic and premium are final salary arrangements with a general pension age of 60, while nuvos provides benefits calculated on a career average basis and has a pension age of 65. Membership of premium is restricted to Civil Servants who entered service between 1 October 2002 and 30 July 2007, those who returned to service from 30 July 2007 with a break of less than 5 years and those who chose to transfer from classic in the pensions options exercise run in 2002 (some of the transferees retained classic benefits for their service before October 2002 their arrangements are known as classic plus). Membership of nuvos is restricted to those who entered service on or after 30 July A fourth section of the PCSPS rules sets out the process to be followed when carrying out valuations of the scheme and also sets out how the Governance Group will operate. In common with most other public service pension schemes, the PCSPS operates on an unfunded pay as you go basis. This means that pensions are paid from current revenues (with any shortfall met from the Exchequer). The pension promise is therefore provided by the Government of the day rather than by reliance on a fund of assets. Despite its unfunded status, the PCSPS is subject to periodic valuations and contributions are paid by employers and employees at a combined level, determined by the scheme actuary, sufficient to meet the liabilities being built up by the active membership (as adjusted to reflect any surplus or shortfall in the scheme). The last valuation was carried out as at 31 March and recommended that the average employer contribution was set at 18.9% of pensionable payroll. 1 Information on the PCSPS can be found at 2 The 2007 valuation report can be found at 2

3 The members contribution rates are set in the scheme rules. In April 2012 tiering arrangements were introduced into the PCSPS, and contributions increased again in April premium and nuvos members have contributions at a rate between 3.5% to 8.25% of pensionable earnings. classic members are now making a 1.5% contribution of their pensionable earnings towards survivors benefits (and they may receive a partial refund of those contributions if they are neither married nor in a civil partnership when they retire) together with an additional contribution of between 0% and 4.75%. Employers are expected to take the level of the employee contributions into account when setting pay. Not all members pay contributions at the standard rates; there are some exceptions: Members who have reached maximum service do not pay contributions Pre-Fresh Start prison officers in classic (those who joined before September 1987) have a pension age of 55 and receive double accrual of benefits after they have built up 20 years of service this allows them to build up 40 years of pensionable service over a period of 30 years of actual service. During the period of double accrual prison officers pay contributions at twice the normal rate (3% rather than 1.5% plus a further 0% to 4.75%) Some senior staff have special accelerated accrual terms and pay an individual contribution rate which is higher than normal As at 31 March 2012, there were approximately 523,000 active members in the Civil Service pension scheme, and around 622,000 pensioners (including dependants). Of the active membership, 57% were members of classic, 26% were members of premium, 2% were members of classic plus and 15% were members of nuvos. 3

4 The pay distribution in the Civil Service is shown in the pie chart below (pay rates are full-time equivalent): Proportion of civil servants in each payband 50,001 to 60,000 4% 60,001 and above 3% Up to 15,000 2% 30,001 to 50,000 23% 15,001 to 21,000 32% Source: PCSPS administrative data 21,001 to 30,000 36% 4

5 Jan-12 Feb-12 Mar-12 Apr-12 May-12 Jun-12 Jul-12 Aug-12 Sep-12 Oct-12 Nov-12 Dec-12 Jan-13 Feb-13 Mar-13 Apr-13 May-13 Jun-13 Jul-13 OPT OUT ANALYSIS The Proposed Final Agreement for the Civil Service pension scheme was published on 9 March This set out that contribution structures would be the subject of discussion by Cabinet Office and unions in the light of experience of opt-outs, other member behaviour and changing circumstances. Cabinet Office has collected monthly data on scheme opt-outs, starting from January This data shows that there have been a total of 4,013 opt outs from 1 April 2012 to 31 July The monthly pattern of opt-outs from January 2012 to July 2013 is shown in Chart 1 below Chart 1 Opt-out by joining date and salary, January 2012 July Opt-out by joining date and salary Source: PCSPS scheme administration data Opted out after joining and earn above 15,000 Opt out same day as join or low earner However, the raw data contains many instances where individuals are recorded as having optedout of the scheme on the same day that they join it. The scheme these individuals are recorded against is nuvos. Cabinet Office has established that in April 2012, HM Revenue and Customs had a large intake of fixed term appointments. Past experience suggests that staff on fixed term appointments often opt out with effect from the day which they join. This is the because under the rules of the scheme members must have at least 2 years qualifying service years before they have a right to a pension if leaving before pension age. For the purpose of this analysis, Cabinet Office believes that the data is being skewed by these staff and that analysis should be carried out on the opt out population excluding these staff, in order to judge whether or not existing members are changing behaviour as a result of the contribution increases. 5

6 Chart 1 shows the number of scheme opt-outs separate to members that we believe to be on fixed term appointments, where the date of opt-out is equal to the date of joining. Members earning less than 15,000 are also excluded, as these members have not experienced any contribution increases so that cannot be their reason for opting out. From this point forward in this note, this group of 790 individuals is used for further analysis, rather than the wider group. The opt out data that was obtained allows us to analyse the population in more detail. Chart 2 shows the gender of the opt outs which shows that of the 790 individuals opting-out, 408 were women and 382 men. 40 Chart 2 opt outs by gender, January 2012 July Male Female Source: PCSPS scheme administration data However, Chart 3 below shows the gender of opt outs as a proportion of the population of each gender (statistics taken from Civil Service Statistics 2013, as at March ). This shows that as a proportion of the overall relevant population the opt-out rate for both men and women has been very low, with a monthly rate of opt-out between 0.003% and 0.017% of the population since January The male and female employee population as at March 2013 is used to calculate the percentages in all months shown in the chart. 6

7 Jan-12 Feb-12 Mar-12 Apr-12 May-12 Jun-12 Jul-12 Aug-12 Sep-12 Oct-12 Nov-12 Dec-12 Jan-13 Feb-13 Mar-13 Apr-13 May-13 Jun-13 Jul-13 Chart 3: opt out by gender, as a proportion of total male/female population. % Male Female Source: PCSPS scheme administration data, Civil Service statistics 2013 Chart 4 and 5 show a breakdown of the number of people who have opted out by full time / part time status. This shows that there is a higher number of full time workers who have opted to leave the scheme in absolute terms, whilst in proportionate terms there are more part-time than full-time opt outs Chart 4: opt outs by full time / part time status Full time Part time 10 0 Source: PCSPS scheme administration data 4 The full and part-time employee population as at March 2013 is used to calculate the percentages in all months shown in the chart. 7

8 Jan-12 Feb-12 Mar-12 Apr-12 May-12 Jun-12 Jul-12 Aug-12 Sep-12 Oct-12 Nov-12 Dec-12 Jan-13 Feb-13 Mar-13 Apr-13 May-13 Jun-13 Jul-13 Chart 5: opt outs by full time / part time status, as a proportion of total full time / part time population % Full time Part time Source: PCSPS scheme administration data, Civil Service statistics 2013 Chart 6 below shows the number of opt outs within the scheme and the salary band in which they have opted out of in absolute terms. It should be recalled that those earning under 15,000 are excluded as this group have not experienced any contribution increases. This shows that in absolute terms in almost every month the salary band showing the most opt-outs is those earning between 15,001 and 21,000 on an FTE basis. In proportionate terms this group is also usually highest. Although the proportion of higher earnings opting-out in some months is higher, this is caused by the relatively small number of high earners, which means the proportions can be significantly influenced by just a few higher earners opting-out. This is illustrated by looking at the number of individuals earning over 60,000 and not opting-out on the day they joined in only one month between January 2012 and July 2013 did more than 3 such individuals opt-out. 8

9 80 Chart 6: Opt outs by salary band Source: PCSPS scheme administration data Chart 7: Opt outs by salary band, as a proportion of the population %