Firefighters’ Pension Scheme

That differs significantly from the legacy scheme, the equality impact assessment for which dealt with marriage, civil partnership and other aspects of relationships, but not with those who were cohabitating in a heterosexual relationship.

This has had an adverse impact on Mr Wilkens’s partner, Melanie Perry, with whom at the time of his death he had been in a relationship for 10 years, for nine of which they had been cohabiting. They also owned their house and paid their mortgage and bills jointly. They had one child together, and the children from Melanie’s previous marriage lived with them, along with Mr Wilkens’s daughter from a previous marriage. Mr Wilkens loved and cared for all the children equally, both emotionally and financially. They were in every sense a family and a single household living in one property together.

After Mr Wilkens’s death, however, Melanie was informed by the pensions manager at Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland Combined Fire Authority that although they had investigated their ability to award her the death grant, they were unable to do so because Melanie and Mr Wilkens were not married. As I have set out, had Mr Wilkens died just one year later after he had tapered into the new scheme, Melanie would have been eligible to succeed his pension. Had it not been for the decision to taper the transition to the scheme and Mr Wilkens’s date of birth, Melanie would therefore not have been in the difficult position that she is in now. It should also be noted that Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland Combined Fire Authority was able to award all four of the children a fire service pension while they were in education because it was satisfied that they—even those from Melanie’s former marriage—met the criteria of “substantially dependent” on Mr Wilkens.

Melanie has been trying to rectify the situation since 2016, having initially approached my predecessor for assistance. As my predecessor’s caseworker, I attended a meeting with Leicestershire Fire and Rescue Service’s assistant chief, the pensions manager and two Fire Brigades Union officials to discuss the case. The combined fire authority and the then Fire Minister were also contacted in writing, but unfortunately no further progress was made at the time.

In May 2018, a further letter was sent to the pension trustees appealing for reconsideration. In their response, they were clear that they had no power to apply discretion to the case. That was reiterated in September last year in a response that I received from Leicestershire Fire and Rescue Service’s chief fire officer, who stated that

“it has never been a case of not wanting to resolve the situation...it has always been around the technical ability and then the legality of doing so. Sadly, the rules around the 1992 pension scheme are clear. They allow no discretion on the interpretation of the scheme by the scheme manager, the Combined Fire Authority or myself”.

A response that I received shortly before that from the Fire Minister stated:

“The responsibility for applying the rules of the 1992 Scheme and deciding an individual’s pension entitlement ultimately rests with each employing Fire and Rescue Authority, in this case Leicestershire Fire and Rescue Service. Notwithstanding this, each employer is required to comply with the scheme’s legislation and does not have discretion to pay benefits to an individual where there is no entitlement.”

I therefore ask the Minister that the fire and rescue authority be allowed to have discretion in this unique matter.

Understandably, Mr Wilkens’s death and Melanie’s subsequent efforts to rectify this pension issue have had a profoundly negative effect on her. In her own words,

“When I answered the door to a Firefighter on Tuesday 23rd August 2016 at approximately 10.30am and the words that came from his mouth were telling me that Paul had died at work on duty, my life, as I knew it also came to an end.

Nothing in my life has or ever will be as hard as living with the trauma and grief that follows the death of your life partner. Imagine living with a scream inside you and the scream is yours but no one else hears it—that is grief!

Not only have I had to learn to continue to live without Paul by my side, I’ve had four children to navigate through the minefield of grief that is forever on going. As they grow older and mature, their emotions and understanding of the finality of death is sometimes impossible to be able to help them to comprehend. It is just so devastatingly unfair.

Challenging the decisions made in relation to a survivors pension these past five years have taken so much of the time and energy that would have been far better placed supporting my children and myself in learning to live without Paul and without the financial provision that he would have expected us to receive. The pension changes were made to ensure that all firefighters were treated equally yet this is far from how we have been treated.

Paul devoted his life to serving for his country, as a Royal Engineer in the British Army serving in Bosnia and the Gulf War and then as a firefighter for Leicestershire Fire and Rescue Service, of which he was immensely proud.

He would be so bitterly disappointed that he had spent his life protecting others yet nothing had been done to protect and support his surviving partner.”

Of course, more widely, the discretional protections have been heavily criticised, with the Court of Appeal finding them to be discriminatory against younger members. I therefore welcome the Government’s proposals to remedy this discrimination. I am particularly supportive of the proposals surrounding the deferred choice underpin and the retrospective remedy, which is due to come into force by 1 October 2023. It is right that members already receiving pensions are given a choice as soon as practicable as to which pension benefits they would prefer to receive in respect of any remediable service rendered between 31 March 2015 and 1 April 2022.

Unfortunately, however—as I said in my response to the consultation on firefighters’ pensions prospective remedy—this will not address all the discrimination that the protections caused, the effects of which are still having a substantial impact on Mr Wilkens’s surviving family members. I therefore ask for the secondary legislation to contain provisions to ensure that surviving partners who would have been eligible to succeed a pension under the 2015 scheme had their partner not died during the transition period before they were tapered on to the reformed scheme are able to succeed the pension. As well as advancing the moral argument for such a change, I should add that the financial burden would be minimal, given that neither my office, Melanie nor the Fire Brigades Union has been able to find any other instances of this.

This was, unfortunately, a “perfect storm” of being the wrong age, sadly passing away at the wrong time, and not being married. Had Mr Wilkens been two years younger, had he passed away two years later, or had he and Melanie been married, Melanie would not have had to fight for access to his pension and to endure so much hardship at an already difficult time. We know that issues have been identified with the tapered protections, so may I ask the Minister please to consider new provisions to allow Melanie to succeed Mr Wilkens’s pension?

I am glad to have brought this issue to the House’s attention. How can it be that, in the 21st century, we have a situation in which a woman cannot claim the pension of a man with whom she had a home, a family and a mortgage, simply because they were not married?

In closing, I thank my hon. Friend again for securing this important debate and for the elegant way in which she made her points in the House this evening.