Date posted: 01/02/2010
Audience: This Notice will be of particular interest to:
- HR Staff involved with early exits
Action: You should:
- Note the changes to the new redundancy terms for lower paid staff published on 2 February 2010 (see paragraph 4)
- Note the further changes to the transitional terms for compulsory redundancies and the requirement for Cabinet Office approval (see paragraph 6)
- Note the government’s intention to amend the terms around Civil Service mobility (see paragraph 8)
- Read the CSCS Reform response document, as updated on 2 February 2010 (attached)
- Read the updated Q & A material (attached)
- Make sure your organisation has issued the attached letter to staff (see paragraph 3)
Timing: Immediate
- The following documents are enclosed with this EPN:
- CSCS Reform – Response to ‘Fairness for All’ consultation, as updated on 2 February 2010
- Q & A material, as updated on 2 February 2010
- Letter to Staff from Sir Gus O’Donnell, Head of the Home Civil Service
- We issued EPN 258 on 4 December setting out the response to the ‘Fairness for All’ consultation. Since then, further discussions with the unions have taken place and the response document was updated on 2 February to reflect these discussions.
- Dusty Amroliwala, Cabinet Office’s Director Civil Service Workforce wrote to HR Directors about the further changes on 2 February. Sir Gus O’Donnell wrote to all staff and a copy is attached for your information.
Summary of further changes (see “Changes to the Proposals” on pages 14 and 15 of the updated response document for further information)
- The underpin included in redundancy terms (which provides protection for lower paid staff) will be set at the better of:
- £60,000 and
- £50,000, as uprated in line with increases in median full-time Civil Service earnings.
(see also Annex C point 4 of updated response document)
- You will already be aware that, for genuine compulsory redundancies, staff are allowed to leave under current Compulsory Early Retirement (CER) and Compulsory Early Severance (CES) terms, provided that their last day of service is on or before 31 March 2011. This has not changed.
- However, further changes to the transitional terms have been agreed, as set out below:
a) Employees who have a minimum of 5 years’ service at 31 March 2010, and whose date of birth is before 1 April 1960, will have the right to take an unreduced pension (see also Annex C point 5 of updated response document).
b) Those individuals aged at least 50 as at 31 March 2010 and with a minimum of 5 years’ current qualifying service will, if dismissed as compulsorily redundant, receive Compulsory Early Retirement terms based on reckonable service as at 31 March 2010. Cabinet Office prior approval will be required as these terms will only apply where Cabinet Office agrees that compulsory redundancy is unavoidable (see also Annex C point 5 of updated response document).
c) Those individuals who would be eligible for a “reserved right” payment if departing on Compulsory Early Severance terms on 31 March 2010, if subsequently made compulsorily redundant before the age of 50, will receive a payment based on the “reserved right” CES payment that would have applied on departure on 31 March 2010. Cabinet Office must approve all such cases. Payments will be tapered. The cash value will be as follows:
• Compulsory redundancy 1 April 2011 – 31 March 2012 : 100%
• Compulsory redundancy 1 April 2012 – 31 March 2013 : 80%
• Compulsory redundancy 1 April 2013 – 31 March 2014 : 60%
• Compulsory redundancy 1 April 2014 – 31 March 2015 : 40% (see also Annex C point 2)
- These changes do not affect any approval you may have already received from Cabinet Office to offer current CER, CES or FER (Flexible Early Retirement) on early exit.
- Whilst not subject to any CSCS rule changes, the government also intends to amend the terms around Civil Service mobility (within the Civil Service Management Code) to allow compulsory transfers of staff between Government Departments and Agencies, effective on 1 April 2010.
- We plan to issue further more detailed guidance later this month.
Cross reference
EPN253 and EPN258
Contacts
Enquiries about content, distribution or to receive in a different format
employerhelpdesk@cabinet-office.x.gsi.gov.uk
01256 846414
Employer Helpdesk
Civil Service Pensions
Grosvenor House
Basing View
Basingstoke
RG21 4HG
Attachments
