Following the recent case brought by David Lock QC and Cartwright King Solicitors and the decision of the Court of Appeal in Evans & Ashcroft v Chief Constable of South Wales Police, it has come to light that many forces may have been deducting too much from injury pensions since 2010 for those in receipt of certain social security awards, namely Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit (‘IIDB’).
We have included a copy of the decision as well as a very useful circulation provided by the Police Federation.
In short, injury pensions and social security awards are normally increased by the same annual increments, which means that as each rises annually by the same percentage increase forces are entitled to deduct the whole amount of IIDB from your injury pension. However, in 2010, due to an Up-rating Order, the Secretary of State was entitled to increase benefits (including IIDB) at at rate higher than the general level of prices, which is what they did. The result of this was that IIDB increased at a rate higher than injury pensions.
The PPA continued to just deduct the total received in IIDB from the injury pension causing a detriment to the officer and in contravention of sub-paragraph 7(2) of Schedule 3 of The Police (Injury Benefit) Regulations 2006.
Officers in receipt of IIDB are encouraged to write to their forces asking whether they have been unlawfully reduced.
Here is the court decision
Here is the Federation circulation
I wrote to my former employers not too long after the judgement was published. They have referred the matter to the Company who act as administrators of the pension scheme. These people have apparently contacted the Home Office for “GUIDANCE”. Where have we heard that word before? I fail to see why anyone would want guidance from the Home Office on this subject. The answers are in the judgement of the Court. Is this another example of the “sinister forces” mentioned in the post above?
Conspiracy or cock up? Either way, a depressingly familiar story.
I don’t claim any State benefits, but I can agree with the suggestion that certain forces like to keep pensioners in the dark. A little while ago, my force announced it was out-sourcing the administration of pension payments to a commercial company. It was a huge national construction company. They built housing estates. Seems they had ‘diversified’ and offered a range of financial management facilities to public bodies and others. So, away went the friendly local staff in County Hall who you could ring up and have a char with if there were any queries, and in came a centralised office in another part of the country, which dealt with the payrolls and other financial aspects for numerous organisations.
That move was then followed by another announcement – that payslips would no longer be issued as it was ‘too costly’. Instead, all pensioners were expected to register online, where they could see the details of their pensions. Needless to say, the registration process was complicated and confusing, and no use whatever to anyone who did not have a computer.
There must have been some protests, for lo and behold, another announcement appeared – any pensioner who wanted a printed monthly payslip could ask for one.
Yet another case of nibbling away at our IOD pensions and this has been going on for 9 years? It will be interesting to see IF any forces had picked up on it and been as good as gold in making the necessary adjustment. I wonder how many OTHER interesting facts we will discover now that we have IODPA and are being trained in a very gentle way to research EVERYTHING to do with our IOD pensions.
I will add another thought here. Until 2003 I had always believed that IIDB was COMPENSATION for an injury received at work to enable a person to deal with the new disabled life they would have to be living with, and being able live as normal a life as possible. imho it is only the financial additions to the basic IIDB, the ‘reduced earnings allowance’ and the ‘severe disabement allowance’, which are purely and simply to help with loss of income, that should be deductable from an IOD pension. Has the TOTAL IIDB ALWAYS been deductable? or is this the result of another ‘alteration’ or mistake in judgement by those who interfere with benefits? Should the basic IIDB be classed as an ‘unjust enrichment’ if it was NOT deducted? Why?
I am living in hopes that one day someone will investigate this!
As a retired officer in receipt of a Injury Pension & Industrial Injury Benefit (IIB), why does this news not surprise me?
The answer is, because my former employer doesn’t send out a pay slip with every payment like some forces do, choosing instead to do so only if the amounts vary by more than a £1.00
However, that is but half of the issue, as in addition to the above, this force also doesn’t include the amount of Industrial Injury Benefit deducted each month in the information provided in the pay slip.
This means that I and other former officers, are forced to rely on the ‘honestly’ of the employer, which now often seems questionable, to say the least!
There was a time when you knew that the any amounts taken were correct. Forces back then were overtly above board and should an error occur, then it was a genuine one, quickly corrected.
However, these days, it seems that more sinister forces (sic), are at work. This is because it , seems, that there is an underlying theme by forces, or possibly Police & Crime Commissioner’s, around saving money by any means possible, even if this means tactics to try to keep the lawful recipients in the dark. A “don’t tell them, or they will claim it back’, mentality, if you like.
As a result of this case and the information provided by the Police Feceration, I will be writing to my individual former employer, (a Midlands force, North of Birmingham) and asking them for the necessary information.
I anticipate that, like everything associated with ensuring justice and fair play for IOD’s, this will be a long drawn out affair & a lot slower that the speed they deduct my IIB each month!
The author of this comment (Modern Society ……) hits the nail on the head. I wholeheartedly agree with their every word. It used to be that Police Forces were free from political influence and were led by upstanding honourable individuals whose honour and integrity was an example to be followed by all their officers and civilian staff.
Now my former Police Force appears to have devolved into a deceitful vengeful organization led by individuals who are full of loathing towards their former officers who have the temerity to be awarded an injury award for being injured on duty.