Consultation Document - Firefighters’ Pension Schemes - Survivor Benefits and Revaluation Orders CorrectionThe Department is consulting on amendments to the NI Firefighters’ Pension Schemes in relation to Survivors’ Benefits following Supreme Court Rulings. The main changes relate to the retention of survivor benefits upon remarriage or entering into a new civil partnership, the removal of the requirement for members to complete a nomination form in respect of their co-habiting partner for survivor benefits to be paid and the removal of limitations to ensure that civil partners are treated in the same way as widowers of opposite sex marriages. The Department is also continuing its work of ensuring that all of the firefighter pension schemes work as intended.
The consultation also includes amendments required to correct the Public Service Revaluation Orders (NI) 2021 and 2022 where an incorrect revaluation figure adversely affected some members. There is no power in legislation to retrospectively amend a revaluation order, or to provide changes to revaluations for past years, therefore it is necessary to retrospectively make the amendments through scheme regulations under the Public Service Pensions Act (NI) 2014 (PSPA (NI) 2014).