An organisation representing fire service bosses has been accused of attempting to block firefighters receiving the pensions they are legally entitled to, via a secret letter.
The letter was circulated in secret by the National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC), and its existence has only been revealed after it was posted anonymously to the Fire Brigade Union’s head office.
The firefighters affected are those not receiving their full pension benefits. The FBU through the courts won a legal challenge on whether the government’s transitional protection arrangements to their pensions were discriminatory. The courts’ decision was that their full pension entitlement should be paid. The government has stated that they are not prepared to do this until October 2023, which has left many retired firefighters facing financial hardship.
As a consequence of the secret letter the union is now planning to go to court on behalf of every member who continues to be denied their full pension.
The NFCC, a representative body for chief fire officers, wrote to all chief fire officers on 25th March 2022 to recommend that “fire and rescue services review their current policy to reflect the latest correspondence from the HM Treasury dated 23 March 2022 that clearly advises services not to be applying Immediate Detriment prior to legislation being in place” [emphasis in original letter].
Immediate detriment refers to a resolution for a group of firefighters who are not receiving the pension they are entitled to, because a 2018 court decision ruling that they had suffered discrimination will not be implemented in legislation until October 2023.
A memorandum of understanding to facilitate the immediate detriment issue being resolved has been agreed between fire and rescue services (via the Local Government Association) and the Fire Brigades Union, but has not been implemented in every fire and rescue service, with a lack of government reassurance over financial aspects of the pensions.
Mark Rowe, Fire Brigades Union national officer, said:
“Chief fire officers need to look after their people. It beggars belief that – in the middle of a cost of living crisis – the NFCC is proactively seeking to keep retired firefighters’ pensions down via a letter they don’t have the integrity or courage to make public.
“This letter makes an already difficult situation even worse. It places another barrier in the way of firefighters receiving the pensions they deserve. It’s disgraceful that currently retired firefighters, some of whom have retired on grounds of ill-health, are less likely to receive the pensions they are legally entitled to. It’s an outcome that badly lets down retired and current firefighters and the FBU will do everything in its power to protect our members’ pensions.”
In a circular to all of its members the union said “As a consequence of the spiteful, unprofessional and amateurish interference of the NFCC… the Fire Brigades Union will now register through the courts immediate detriment claims for every FBU member who is being denied their full pension”.
You can read the full Fire Brigades Union circular to its members on this here.
