2015 Fire Scheme - Information on your membership for deferred members

There are three different variations of the Firefighters' Pension Scheme, these being:

• the Firefighters' Pension Scheme 1992
• the New Firefighters' Pension Scheme 2006
• the Firefighters' Pension Scheme 2015.

The Retained Modified Scheme also exists as an annex of the 2006 Scheme for those Special Firefighter Members who were offered the chance to buy back previous service and convert this service to Special Modified membership.

The Firefighters' Pension Scheme 2015 is the open Scheme which new firefighter members will join. Also, on 1 April 2015 many members of the 1992 Scheme and the 2006 Scheme, were moved into the 2015 Scheme as they were not covered by protections.

However, the 1992 and 2006 Schemes are still available to those members who were granted Tapered or Protected Membership of these Schemes.

The Firefighters' Pension Scheme 2015 operates as a Career Average Revalued Earnings scheme, which is a form of defined benefit pension scheme. The pension a firefighter will earn each year is based on their pensionable pay in that year and is increased by a set revaluation rate, linked to inflation, for each year up to retirement or leaving. The final pension is calculated by adding together the pension earned in each year of membership

As an alternative to a deferred pension, upon leaving the 2015 Scheme, you could request that your pension rights should be transferred to another pension arrangement.

If you leave your employment with the Fire & Rescue Service and transfer to another Fire Authority, provided there is no break in service between employments, you would remain a member of the 2015 Scheme.

However, if you leave to take up employment as a firefighter in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland, a transfer payment would be paid because different funding arrangements apply.

Transfers are restricted from unfunded Public Service Pension Schemes to schemes from which members are able to access their benefits flexibly.

You can find out more about pension liberation on The Pensions Regulator website.

Your Annual Benefits Statement is a yearly statement detailing the value of your pension benefits at 31 March of that year. This is an important document which allows you to see how your pension is growing each year.

Your 2018 statement, for membership to 31 March 2018, will be issued to you by post by 31 August 2018.

We also provide you with a comprehensive explanation of your 2018 Annual Benefits Statement for the Firefighters’ pension schemes for both the Northamptonshire and Cambridgeshire Fire Pension schemes, which can be found on our Forms and Resources page.