Just two of the thousands of retired teachers who could be due compensation after a landmark pensions court ruling on age discrimination seven years ago have received the money so far.
The 2018 McCloud judgment declared that previous changes made to public sector pensions treated younger workers unfairly. To fix this, the government promised to pay back more than £17 billion to those affected.
This involved issuing “remediable service statements” to retired teachers, asking whether they would like their pension entitlement to be calculated based on their current scheme, known as the “legacy” option, or the new “reformed” scheme.
Just two retired teachers paid
Teachers who choose the reformed scheme could have their annual pension bumped up or be due backdated payments.
Data obtained by Schools Week shows that 15,362 retired teachers have so far made a decision after getting detailed statements from the pension scheme. But only two of those have received the money or pension increases they were promised, a freedom of information request has found.
The government said the majority of retirees are choosing to maintain their current pension benefits, saying younger teachers are actually more likely to be impacted.
They said most adjustments to payments will also be “relatively minor”, but would not say how many teachers chose the reformed pension scheme.
Kate Atkinson (pictured), national secretary at school leaders’ union NAHT, said it was “simply unacceptable” that retired teachers “whose pensions have been paid on a discriminatory basis are still waiting to receive the pension to which they are entitled and have paid into throughout their working lives”.
Some retired teachers are also still waiting for their statements to be issued.
In April, the Teachers’ Pension Service (TPS), the management of which is outsourced to Capita, said that, while 500,000 statements had been issued, some “complex cases” were still being worked on.
Atkinson said the “delay and backlog … isn’t an issue that can continue to be ignored”.
She added: “The Department for Education should look into these issues as a matter of urgency as they impact professionals who have devoted their careers to improving the lives of children and who shouldn’t be ignored in their retirement.”
I want a timetable, and someone held accountable
The TPS is not the only scheme affected. NHS staff, firefighters and civil servants are also caught in the wider McCloud remedy rollout, which the Office for Budget Responsibility estimates will cost the Treasury over £17 billion.
Government ‘turning blind eye’
Affected former school leaders have warned the issue has the same dynamics as the Post Office scandal, with the government “turning a blind eye” as it is not “high on the priority list”.
Alison Aylott, a retired school leader, has been battling to access a pension lump sum she was promised as part of the government’s remedy scheme.
Despite submitting her decision in February to accept a payment worth significantly over £20,000, Aylott says she is still waiting, nearly four years after she retired.
“I missed out on the opportunity to invest that money, whether in an ISA or something else,” she added. “They say interest will be paid, but at what rate? For how long? That’s not really good enough.”
One official link they gave her for further guidance led to a pensions advisory agency that has been defunct since 2018.
Another retired school leader, who left the profession in August 2023, says ongoing delays in implementing the McCloud pension remedy have left them around £40,000 short.
“I retired knowing what those numbers were likely to be because I’d used the calculator and saved the figures. But I’m now down about £5,000 a year, and short between £30,000 and £40,000 in a lump sum. I can only just manage and I’m seriously considering returning to work.”
The former teacher, who does not want to be named, claimed initial assurances that the issue would be resolved by March 2024 were quietly pushed back, with no firm update since.
When they checked the TPS website, it stated that 125,000 remedy statements for retired members to have the conversation started on compensation would not be issued in full until September 2025.
“It’s my money, and I need it now… We’re being dealt with like the Post Office scandal. Brushed aside because we’re not shouting loud enough. The judges and firefighters got sorted.
“But we’re told the teacher cases are too complicated. I want a timetable, and someone held accountable. This is money I’ve paid in. How legal is it to withhold it?”
Issue causes wider delays
The backlog in dealing with cases appears to have overwhelmed the TPS, and is also affecting current teachers who have wider questions about their own pensions.
Aylott said attempts to get updates on her case have involved multiple waits of longer than an hour on the TPS helpline.
Freedom of information figures show average waiting times for the helpline in the week commencing February 17 this year were 49 minutes. During a week in May, the average wait was 19 minutes.
The delays in remedial service statements have also stopped teachers getting a divorce, as a pension valuation is needed by the courts to decide whether it should be shared with an ex-partner.
More than 3,000 people were waiting for valuations as of October last year, but that was down to 620 in March, the BBC reported.
I can only just manage. I’m seriously considering returning to work
Melanie Moffatt, pensions specialist at the Association of School and College Leaders, said: “While we understand that the complexity of the remedy means this is far from a straightforward process, we are hearing too many examples of members being adversely affected.”
The DfE and Capita did not want to provide an on-record comment, but they said it was “always planned that the issuing of payments would be made some time” after statements were issued.
They said the Teachers’ Pension Scheme has “begun issuing payments to members this month”.
The two payments already made were “on an exceptional basis due to the particular circumstances involved”.
“To unpick seven years of pension accrual is extremely complicated and is an unprecedented administrative task for the public service pension schemes,” they added.
Capita has lost its contract to run the scheme, which it held for more than 25 years. It is due to be taken over fully by Indian IT company Tata Consultancy Services in October.
A Schools Week investigation in 2020 found that teachers’ pensions could be tens of thousands of pounds short because of administrative failures – with the government admitting it has no idea how big the problem is.
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