BARNSLEY South MP Stephanie Peacock has welcomed the government’s new pension reforms.
Street cleaners, school cooks and other dedicated public servants are set to benefit from a package of reforms to the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) that will end discrimination and lead to more money in people’s pockets.
Mothers will benefit, becoming the first public service pension scheme to make all of maternity leave automatically pensionable.
Latest estimates show 74 per cent of the scheme’s seven million members are women, and one of the most significant gaps in a woman’s pensionable service is often maternity leave.
The reforms will also end historic discrimination that meant opposite-sex couples did not earn survivor benefits, while tough new rules will remove pensions for serious offences by public servants.
She said: “These steps will directly benefit people who are working on the frontline, serving school lunches, cleaning buildings, managing libraries and cleaning streets.
“It will end historic discrimination and put more money in their pockets.”
