Prison guards in legal threat over pension blunder
SOLICITOR SAYS THERE COULD BE A CLASS ACTION Officers may have lost £100k each but SPS refuses to pay back money
Prison officers who were given the wrong information about their pension may have lost as much as £100,000 each.
They are now planning legal action against the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), which has refused to pay back the money.
Some guards stayed in employment longer than they had planned as a result of the impact on their finances.
Employees who moved from operational to non- operational roles from the late 90s should not have lost out, it’s been claimed.
Kieran Smith, of Thompsons solicitors, who are acting on behalf of the prison staff, said: “A group of officers in various prisons were given advice by the SPS relating to their pension in 1997.
“Some had valuable reserved pension rights but were told they would lose those reserved pension rights and could not regain them if they transferred from an operational to non- operational role.
“Based on that advice, which turned out to be wrong, some of our clients moved to non- operational roles as they tried to move up the ladder and increase their salary.
“The Scottish Prison Service wrote to at least some of the officers affected, saying the advice they had given them was wrong.
“Someone could have moved to a non-operational role and, before a certain point, they could have transferred back to an operational role and regained those rights.
“The end result is a number of officers have suffered a financial loss because they’ve lost those pension rights. They could have lost up to £ 100,000 as a result of the mistake and now face having to keep working past the age they planned to leave.”
Staff involved only discovered the mistake when the SPS wrote to them in 2019. But it is thought many more may have been affected, which could lead to a class action.
The letter from the SPS said: “Until recently, the SPS understood that a move out of an eligible role CASE Kieran Smith resulted in an employee losing their reserved rights on a permanent basis. The SPS has been advised by the Cabinet Off ice that an employee who has previously had reserved rights status but who lost that status due to a move to a role that was not eligible has the right to regain the status if they move back to an eligible role.”
Smith added: “We are not at the moment taking a class action but that may become the case. Some of our clients have gone through the internal dispute route and lodged a complaint. The SPS held their hands up and said the advice they gave was wrong but have refused to pay out to anyone.
“A group of hardworking men and women who have risked their lives over a number of years of loyal service have lost out financially and are having to work longer due to the wrong advice.”
The SPS said: “As this is a live matter, it would not be appropriate for us to comment at this time.”