However, Melanie Durrant, Principal at Barnett Waddingham, thinks it is fair to say the response doesn’t give a huge amount away and we still do not know when to expect any draft regulations, just at a “later date”.
The exit payment cap, now more widely known as the £95k cap, was first publicised on 23 May 2015 when the Government announced its intention to end six figure exit payments for public sector workers, believing that these payments are not fair and neither do they 'offer value for money to the taxpayer who funds them'. Since then, the cap has been widely discussed in the period leading up to the consultation in April 2019.
Below are some of the key takeaways:
- Despite there being a lot of concern raised, the early retirement strain payment sounds like it will still be included in the £95k cap calculation. Their feeling is that this element is often the most costly element which is ultimately funded by the taxpayer so it is right that it is included. Instead, they expect that pension schemes, employment contracts, and compensation schemes will be amended to reflect the introduction of the cap.
- HMT have now acknowledged that the £95k figure should increase over time but in their response, there is no further detail about how this will be achieved. Considering the figure of £95k was suggested back in 2015, five years on it is surprising that the same cap would initially be used, although it is perhaps not surprising at all as the application of CPI in the interim period would no longer keep the cap under a six figure sum. With no allowance for inflationary increases more individuals will inevitably be affected as a result.
- The discretionary waiver system was welcomed for exceptional circumstances but there is no further detail about how this would work in practice
- There have been some changes to the public sector bodies that the Government has proposed to be within the scope of the cap but we do not think that this will change the previous intent in respect of any participating employers in the LGPS.
Due to the current climate, we are aware that some participating employers in the LGPS are going through redundancy exercises so although the cap will not apply at the moment, with no implementation date given, we do not know for how long that will remain true.
We await the draft regulations with anticipation.
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