Councillors are pushing for the minimum pension age to be increased by two years for more officers amid fears about costs from local government reorganisation.
In its consultation on increasing the minimum retirement age in the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) from 55 to 57 years old from 6 April 2028, Whitehall has proposed excluding people who were in the LGPS before 4 November 2021.
However, the Local Government Pensions Committee, which includes councillors from the Local Government Association (LGA), Convention of Scottish Local Authorities and Welsh LGA has raised ‘concerns' over the proposed exemption in its consultation response.
The committee warned the ‘financial burden' of the exemption could be ‘significant' due to the number of redundancies expected as a result of reorganisation in the coming years.
It said the exemption was ‘likely to result in considerably higher costs for employers (and, by extension, taxpayers)'.
However, head of local government at trade union Unison, Mike Short, said: ‘Raising the LGPS minimum pension age would break a clear promise to workers who planned their retirement on the basis they could access payments from 55. There's no reason to treat staff any differently to when they first joined the scheme. The goalposts shouldn't move just because council budgets have had significant cuts since 2010.'
One senior officer added: ‘Typical members. Ready to do the dirty on hard-working officers who face losing their jobs through no fault of their own but because of reorganisation.'
In its response, the LGPS advisory board, which includes employers and employees, highlighted that 60,987 LGPS members requested early access to their pension in 2024-25 – up almost 12% on the previous year and by more than 20% since 2020-21.
The board's response read: ‘This is a benefit that members highly value, and, in recent years, due to the ongoing cost of living crisis, members have increasingly needed to access their LGPS benefits early.'
However, the Local Government Pensions Committee urged the Government to look at the cost implications ‘so they can be factored into broader assessments of savings from local government reorganisation'.
The committee said it was in favour of the early retirement age remaining at 55 for those with ‘special protection', such as having been compulsorily transferred into the LGPS from another public service pension scheme, as the number in this category was ‘diminishing'.
