Matthews second options exercise

The original legal settlement under the Part-Time Workers (Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment) Regulations 2000 only allowed certain retained firefighters with service between 1 July 2000 and 5 April 2006 to become members of the modified pension scheme. Eligible firefighters were asked whether they wanted to join this scheme in an options exercise which took place in 2014-2015. Elections to join had to be received by 30 September 2015. This was the ‘first options exercise’.

More recently, this judgment was challenged at the European Court of Justice in relation to fee-paid judges. The Court ruled in that case that service going back to the start of employment could be taken into account. The government accepted that the same principles apply to certain retained firefighters, whether they have made a legal claim or not.

What does this mean?

A second options exercise will take place to allow eligible retained firefighters to buy pension service as a special member of the FPS 2006, backdated to the start date of their employment.

For information about eligibility and to understand what is happening and when please visit the national member site fpsmember.org here.