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Edward Cooper is leading an appeal against the High Court?s decision regarding public sector pensions
16 January 2012
Edward Cooper, head of the employment department at Russell Jones & Walker, is leading an appeal against the High Court’s decision to reject a judicial review challenge of the Government’s decision to change the index used for the uprating of public sector pensions.
Previously public sector pensions were uprated every year according to the Retail Price Index (RPI). With effect from the 4th April the Government switched the uprating so that it was linked to the Consumer Price Index (CPI). There was no prior consultation about this decision.
On average CPI increases at a slower rate than RPI because CPI measures inflation in a different way. The effect of the change in index-linking is that pensions won't increase by as much under CPI as they would under RPI. It has been estimated that the switch will reduce the amount paid out for public sector pensions by £1.6 billion per annum by 2016. The decision will also affect any other state benefits which were also previously uprated annually according to RPI under the Social Security Administration Act 1992 (section 150). Most notably, the additional state pension would also be affected
On the 25th October Edward represented a coalition of unions and interest groups in the High Court to challenge the government’s decision. The represented parties included the Police Federation, FDA, GMB, Prospect the National Union of Teachers, the National Federation of Occupational Pensioners and the Association of Principal Fire Officers, and pensioner groups the Civil Service Pensioners' Alliance (CSPA) and the National Association of Retired Police Officers.
The judicial review application was rejected. However, one of the Judges found in favour of the argument that the Secretary of State had erred in having regard to economic considerations when considering the switch to CPI linking. The Court gave leave to appeal on this basis and also on whether the Secretary of State was entitled to use CPI for uprating public sector pensions. Edward is now bringing an appeal on this basis on behalf of the FDA, GMB, Prospect, National Union of Teachers and Civil Service Pensioners Alliance (CSPA).
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