The SCAPE discount rate is used to set the employer contribution rates in the unfunded public sector pension schemes and to determine the actuarial factors across all public sector schemes. The discount rate was reduced on 30 March 2023 to the consumer price index (CPI) plus 1.7% from CPI plus 2.4%.
What is changing?
The impact to actuarial factors that affect the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) means that with effect from 30 March 2023, the following calculations have been suspended until new actuarial factors are issued. This will impact all new quotations and cases ready for payment, where the original quote is out of guarantee*
- Non-club transfers in to the LGPS.
- Non club transfer out of the LGPS.
- Interfund calculations when transferring from one LGPS fund to another.
- Refund cash transfer sums where service is greater than 3 months but less than 2 years.
- All cash equivalent values (CEV) for divorce. If we have previously provided a quotation for divorce purposes but the pension sharing order has not yet been made, you may need to notify the court to inform of the change in the CEV to be taken account in the financial settlement.
*Guarantee– From the date of calculation, a quote is guaranteed for 3 months.
We understand that new transfer factors will be issued in April / May and so until these are confirmed, we will not be able to produce any new quotations for the above. Please bear with us in the interim period and we will process any requests as soon as we have the factors from the Governments Actuary Department.
We can continue to provide estimated retirement quotations with an effective date on or after 1 April 2023, but please note that the factors will be changing and so any final retirement figures may change if you do decide to retire.