Home Office circular 008 / 2010

British Transport Police Transfers

This Circular Relates to  Circular No 46 / 2004: The Police Pension Scheme-Police Medical Appeal Boards/Role of Selected Medical Practitioner/British Transport Police Transfers.

Bilateral Agreement with the British Transport Police Force

1. I attach at Annex A the agreement made on 25 March 2010 on transfers from the Police Pension Scheme (PPS) 1987 and the New Police Pension Scheme (NPPS) 2006 in England and Wales to the British Transport Police Force Superannuation Fund (BTPFSF), and from the BTPFSF to the NPPS in England and Wales, which comes into force on 1 April 2010. This new Agreement supersedes the Agreement dated 15 July 2004, which expired on 1 April 2006 (Home Office Circular 46/2004 refers).

Need for Agreement

2. A new Agreement is needed because the NPPS 2006 was introduced for officers joining Home Department (HD) Forces from 6 April 2006, and a new section of the BTPFSF was introduced for officers joining the British Transport Police Force (BTPF) from 1 April 2007.

3. Annex A is largely self-explanatory, with examples given.

However, the following features are drawn to your attention:

Scope of Agreement

4. This Agreement covers transfers for members who joined an HD Force or BTPF on or after 1 April 2006 and for whom no transfer payment has already been made in respect of that transfer. Officers who moved forces before 1 April 2006 had the opportunity to transfer their pension rights under the previous agreement.

Age limits

5. The standard provisions of the bilateral agreement apply where the member has not reached age 55.

• A transfer of a member joining the new scheme on or after age 55 will be subject to the agreement of both schemes.

Transfers involving breaks in service

6. Transfers between the BTPF and HD Forces may be made under the Agreement provided the gap between service finishing in one force and starting in the other is no more than a month.

· Where the break in service is more than a month the receiving scheme is not obliged to accept a transfer payment and calculate the service credit under the terms of the Agreement, but has the discretion to do so.

• Forces should note that where an officer with a break in service greater than a month is allowed to reckon service for pay and allowances, favourable consideration should be given to applying the Agreement to the pension transfer.

Transfer payments not CETVs

7. The incoming payment from the BTPFSF is not called a transfer value but a transfer payment. Cash equivalent transfer values (CETVs) are calculated on the basis of the capital value of the pension to provide a stream of payments starting from the deferred pension age. Although this may mean that the transfer payments are less than the normal CETVs, paragraph 8 of Schedule 1A of the Occupational Pensions Schemes (Transfer Values) Regulations 1996 (as amended) permits this type of arrangement, as the benefits to the individual in the receiving scheme would be at least equal in value to those given up in the old scheme.

• As a backstop, an officer is able to opt for a transfer under a normal CETV under non-Agreement terms if he or she wishes.

Transfer exchange rates

8. Service credits reflect the different benefit structures in the schemes and so can be significantly above or below year for year.

9. You are asked to draw this agreement to the attention of officers who have joined your force but who have still to make a pension transfer so that they can take advantage of this Agreement within the time limits set down.

John Gilbert

Head of Police Pensions and Retirement Policy Section

Attachments

• Annex A - BTP Agreement (PDF file - 156kb)

  Annex A - BTP Agreement

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