News and Updates...

Update for all pension scheme members (i.e. serving Officers, Deferred Members and Pensioner Members):

Following the 1 May transition of pension administration services from the former sub-contractor (Equiniti Paymaster/EQ), SSL administration team is making progress on working through the backlog of work inherited from EQ on 1 May. The team continues, as always, to prioritise cases involving member retirement, member deaths (in service and in pension), dependents pensions, divorce/CETVs and queries about missing payments.

Recent SCAPE Discount Rate Changes: Scheme Members may be aware that on 21 May 2026 all public sector pension schemes, including the MPS Scheme, were instructed by HM Treasury and Government Actuary Department to implement changes to the actuarial factors applied to the commutation of pension to lump sum for Members retiring with 1987 Scheme entitlement. N.B. This change does not impact scheme members who retired on or before 20 May 2026.

The work needed to review, revise and test calculators following this change, required a pause in processing retirements from 21 May 2026 onwards. We have resumed processing retirements again, but this has caused a small knock-on delay in processing both Active (serving Officer) retirements and those of Deferred members. Active members affected have been written to about this by MPS. Deferred Members who have applied to take their pension on or after 21 May are being written to by SSL. We will seek to minimise the delay in processing your requests. Further information on these changes are available on the NPCC website here: FAQs – change to the SCAPE discount rate

We expect that there will be further changes announced by Government by the 30 June which will also require further review and amendment of our calculators. When we know more about that we and the MPS Scheme Manager will update messaging to affected Members.

These changes do mean that other pensions casework is currently taking longer for which we apologise. If you have previously emailed or called our helpdesk about an outstanding request or query, please refrain from calling or emailing us repeatedly as this only ties-up our team on enquiries and causes additional delay for you and other Members. If your case falls into an urgent category (as outlined above) we continue to prioritise to meet our target delivery timelines and will update Members where delay is likely to be extended for any reason.

Information for Serving Officer Members and Deferred Members on Retirement processing timescales: Serving Officers (Active Scheme Members) should note that while we endeavour to pay lump sums as near to first day of retirement, these payments can take longer, and the overall service level for processing pension lump sums is within 28 days of first day of retirement. While we usually process lump sum payments well within 28 days of retirement, you are recommended to avoid entering into any financial commitments/agreements for at least 28 days beyond retirement. This timescale also applies to Members taking Ill Health Retirement.

Deferred Members (Officers who have left the MPS), and are considering taking their MPS Pension benefits, should note that the normal processing time is two calendar months from your planned retirement date, or from when we have received all the necessary information to process your pension calculation. As noted above all processing times are extended because of the ongoing SCAPE changes to pensions calculations.

You should not make any financial commitments based on your planned retirement date as neither SSL as the Pension Administrator, or MPS Pension Scheme can accept any liability for any such commitments Members may make before we confirm that we have processed your pension calculation into payment.

Pension Estimates (for Active Members): As we are now in the implementation phase for 2026 Annual Benefit Statements. The MPS Scheme Manager has authorised that we cease delivery of pension estimates so we can focus resource on delivery of ABS and other priorities. Members who are still serving officers and planning to leave the MPS under a Voluntary Exit Scheme (VES) will receive an estimate as part of the VES process. If you have an urgent requirement for a pension estimate for other reasons, you should please email the SSL Pensions team on enquiries_pensions@police.soprasteria.co.uk - marking your email "URGENT- Pension Estimate request" explaining the reasons and we will consider your request.

Update for Pension Scheme Members affected by the McCloud Remedy:

We have processed over 90% of statements due to Members affected by McCloud, however, in common with most public sector schemes we have a smaller number of members who have yet to receive their Remediable Service Statement (RSS). We have previously written to explain the position and that we continue to process such cases as quickly as possible. If you need information, or have a query about, the McCloud Pension Remedy additional background information can be found on the NPCC website at Police Pension Info - policepensioninfo.co.uk which includes a McCloud remedy Calculator, or if you have queries about your personal RSS, you can contact the SSL McCloud Pension Team by e-mail on: SSCL.MPS.McCloud.Remedy@police.sscl.com.