Martin Gallagher, who leads the Job’s Forgotten campaign, said many members had been left without protection in their old age adding: “Other than the assistance from The Herald we have felt abandoned.”
The motion, lodged by Scottish Labour MSP Pauline McNeill, highlights The Herald’s reporting on continuing delays in resolving the pension problems and says approximately 400 cases remain outstanding.
The standard motion, aimed at raising awareness to Parliament of an issue says the Scottish Public Pensions Agency has missed its latest September target for issuing Remedial Service Statements and that around 400 cases remain outstanding.
The motion says parliament should be “concerned” about the continuing delays and calls attention to the need for Scottish ministers to take “urgent action” to end what it describes as “this misery” for officers who spent years serving Scotland’s communities.
It also says the statements are necessary for retired officers to understand their pension provision. It notes calls from members of the pension scheme and the Scottish Police Federation for ministers to intervene.
Mr Gallagher said: “We now hope that Ms McNeill engenders a realisation from the parliament that those who protected Scotland have themselves been left with no protection in their old age. We stood up to every challenge that was thrown at us. It is now time for our Parliamentarians to hopefully repay those endeavours.”
The motion comes after The Herald revealed the Scottish Public Pensions Agency (SPPA) missed its own latest target for completing the remaining pension statements for retired police officers.
Pensioner rights campaigner Martin Gallagher (Image: Martin Gallagher)
In a letter sent to a retired officer on July 22, the agency said there were fewer than 400 Remediable Service Statements (RSS) still to produce and that completing them was its “top priority” within the pension remedy work.
It said it expected to have issued more than 5,000 statements, representing around 97 per cent of retired police members, by the end of July and expected to complete the remaining cases by the end of September.
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That September deadline has now passed, leaving campaigners demanding answers over when the remaining officers will finally receive the information they need.
The SPPA said in its letter that some cases were more complicated because records needed additional information, processing or checking.
It also said the calculations used to produce the statements had to be checked by the Government Actuary’s Department before they could be used, while delays had also arisen from policy and technical issues following Scottish Ministers’ decision to write off ill-health overpayments to police scheme members.
The agency told the retired officer: “If we do encounter any issues which mean we cannot provide your RSS by the end of September, we will contact you to let you know.”
The wider pension dispute dates back to changes made to public sector pension schemes in 2015.
A court ruling found that the changes unlawfully discriminated against younger public sector workers because older workers were allowed to remain in their existing pension schemes while younger colleagues were moved into new arrangements.
SPPA chief Stephen Pathirana is expected to answer to the Scottish Parliament in a future scrutiny session (Image: SPPA)
The UK Government subsequently introduced the McCloud remedy to correct the discrimination.
Eligible members are entitled to have their pension position recalculated for the period from April 2015 to March 2022 and to choose the pension arrangements that leave them better off.
The remedy affects workers across public services, including police officers, firefighters, teachers and NHS staff.
But the process of correcting the pensions has itself become mired in delays, leaving thousands waiting for statements setting out what their corrected pension position will be.
Mr Gallagher said the nearly 700 members of The Job’s Forgotten campaign were “delighted” that the motion had been tabled.
He said: “The Herald has been the one paper that has championed our cause since the SPPA chose to ignore legislated instructions to resolve our pension issues.”
Mr Gallagher said campaign members had been left feeling abandoned by the institutions that were supposed to oversee the process.
The campaign leader has previously accused the SPPA of failing to meet its legal responsibilities towards pensioners affected by the remedy.
He said: “The SPPA is not fit for purpose. Change is needed.”
The dispute forms part of a much wider Scottish public sector pension clean-up estimated previously at around £1.7 billion.
Figures provided by the SPPA in July showed around 215,000 members of Scottish public sector pension schemes were ultimately eligible to receive a remedy statement.
An SPPA spokesman said: “The SPPA continues to work hard to deliver the remainder of the McCloud Remedy to our members, alongside continuing to support our members to retire and ensure pensions are paid on time.
“All retired police officers are receiving a pension and for most the pension they are currently receiving is the most beneficial for them. Any arrears of pension or lump sum that arise from a member’s Remedy choice attracts interest from the date the underpayment arose until it is paid.
“We maintain regular contact with members through our online Remedy hubs and direct to member communications as well as engaging with employers, employer organisations, unions, the scheme pension boards and The Pensions Regulator to ensure all are kept up to date on Remedy delivery progress.”
A Scottish Government spokesman said: “We understand the concerns raised by individuals impacted by this situation. The McCloud Remedy is a UK-wide programme of exceptional scale and complexity, and the UK Government’s original statutory timelines underestimated the challenge.
“The SPPA will continue to update Scottish Ministers and the Scottish Parliament on the progress towards McCloud remedy delivery.”