I have transferred my pension out of the SCPF

You transferred your SCPF pension to a different pension provider (this includes individuals who transferred out due to a Divorce Pension Sharing Order settlement). One part of the SCPF pension was the ‘Guaranteed Minimum Pension’ (GMP). Typically, GMP makes up only a small portion of the overall SCPF pension but due to recent legal changes, we need to check that your transfer payment amount was accurate and increase it if necessary. We have appointed Aon to do these calculations and administer any top-up payments.

In the past, women received their State Pension earlier than men. Workplace pension schemes often reflect this by setting women’s retirement age at around 60, and men’s at around 65.

From 17 May 1990, pension schemes legally had to calculate workplace pensions in the same way for men and women. However, this did not apply to GMP.

In 2018 the High Court ruled that GMP should have been included in the 1990 changes. In 2020 the High Court ruled that transfer payments, including those as part of a Divorce Pension Sharing Order settlement, should also be considered. Further guidance was needed on how to do this in practice. Several acceptable methods were developed with detailed methodology and models created to support these methods. This is why these GMP checks are only happening now.

The new legal requirement only applies to GMP built up between 17 May 1990 and 5 April 1997. If your transfer payment did not include GMP built up during this period, you will not be affected and will not receive any communication or adjustments to your transfer payment.

If you took a transfer after reaching your NRA, or are the ex-spouse of an SCPF member and they were above their NRA, our administration system does not yet support the necessary calculations. We will calculate top-ups for these when we are able to and you will receive a letter if you are due a top-up payment.

If your transfer was calculated after 31 March 2023 and you, or your ex-spouse, were below normal retirement age (NRA), the check will already have been done and any required adjustment will have been included in your transfer payment.

If your transfer was calculated between 1 June 2011 and 31 March 2023, and you have not received a letter, it could be because:

a) You are not due a top-up.

b) You are due a top-up of less than £50.

c) You are due a top-up of £50 or more, but we were unable to contact you based on the information we hold.

d) You took a transfer after reaching your NRA or are the ex-spouse of an SCPF member and they were above their NRA. Our administration system does not yet support the necessary calculations. We will calculate top-ups for these when we are able to and you will receive a letter if you are due a top-up payment.

If you wish to check if you are due a top-up, please send an email with the header ‘GMP equalisation’ to SCPFtrustee@shell.com providing your full name, address, date of birth, NI number, the amount and the date of your transfer payment.

If your transfer was calculated before June 2011, we have not yet calculated whether or not you are due a payment or tried to trace you. This is because the data we need for the calculation is not held in our current administration system, which was implemented in June 2011, and so is not easily accessible. If you wish to check if you are due a top-up, please send an email with the header ‘GMP equalisation’ to SCPFtrustee@shell.com providing your full name, address, date of birth, NI number, the amount and the date of your transfer payment.

We may need to contact you for further information, but this will allow us to locate the data we hold about you and your transfer.

Please note that finding the data and undertaking the calculation could take considerable time.