Building for the Future:
News and Views from Sally and the HQ Team
Hello there,
We hope that you are enjoying your Winter issue of ‘The Pensioner’ magazine and that its cover has provided some ‘festive cheer’!
Our webinars in November on the Civil Service Pensions 2015 Remedy, commonly referred to as McCloud, were well attended by CSPA members and others, who we hope will be considering becoming members as a result! For those of you who are interested, the presentation slides and recording of one of the webinars are available within the members’ area of the website and and a useful FAQ sheet, will be available in due course. The 2015 Remedy applies to those who have pensionable service in the Civil Service scheme between April 1st 2015 and 31st March 2022.
We had a very successful parliamentary event with our Later Life Ambitions partners to launch our LLA pensioners’ manifesto, “Standing by Pensioners” in the House of Commons on the 21st November hosted by Sir Stephen Timms MP. The event was enlivened by the presence of 60’s pop icon Sandie Shaw, who whole-heartedly endorsed our vision for a better later life for us all.
The following day, we welcomed the Chancellor’s announcement that the Triple Lock is to be applied in full to State Pensions next year, increasing them by 8.5% from April 2024. Click here to find out more about this, and the anticipated increases of 6.7% for Civil Service pensioners form the 8th April 2024.
We continue to challenge media myths about civil service pensions to dispel the perception that all Civil Service pensioners enjoy ‘gold-plated’ pension payments, when in fact, the average Civil Service pension is just £9,784 a year – the average figure for women being as little as £7,502 per year – even after the 10.1% uplift applied from April 2023.
Our Head Office team will be getting into the spirit of Christmas by joining in with the Charity for Civil Servants’ Festive Jumper Day, and we will be coming into the office in suitably jolly attire on Thursday 21st December. You can find out more about our partner’s event here.
Christmas can be a wonderful time of the year, to celebrate with family and friends, but for some it can be very lonely. Age UK have some useful advice and help available through their website or by calling their free advice line on 0800 678 1602.
We wish you all a happy time in the coming weeks, however you may choose to celebrate and mark the Christmas Season.