The firefighters pension scheme 1992 is final salary, payable from 50 or 55; the 2015 scheme is career average with a normal pension age of 60.

Which scheme you are in decides when you can stop work, what a year of service is worth and what you pay in. Since 2022 there is also a choice to make about the years in between. This guide sets the schemes side by side for England and flags where Scotland and Wales differ. Unsure how your years split between 1992 and 2015? Say on the form on this page when to ring; an FCA-authorised adviser will explain how the fire schemes treat each block of service, free of charge, and your administrator still confirms the figures.

Firefighters pension scheme 1992 or 2015: which applies to you?

If you are serving now, you are in the 2015 scheme. The Home Office's 2023 consultation says the 1992 and 2006 schemes closed to pensionable service after 31 March 2022 and that everyone who carried on moved across, whatever their age; its glossary says of the 2015 scheme: "Since 1 April 2022 it is the only pension scheme available to Firefighters."

The same glossary says the 1992 scheme began in 1973 and closed to new entrants on 6 April 2006, and the 2006 scheme closed to new entrants on 31 March 2015. The 2006 scheme sits between the other two and appears below only where it changes an answer. Many firefighters hold two records: the Local Government Association (LGA) describes "a two-part pension, one part built up in your original final salary scheme (FPS 1992 or FPS 2006) and the other in the 2015 scheme". For the general idea, see what a final salary pension is.

Final salary or career average: how each scheme builds your pension

1992 scheme2015 scheme
TypeFinal salaryCareer average revalued earnings
Accrual1/60th a year, 2/60ths a year after 20 years1/59.7th of pay a year
Cap40/60ths (30 years' service)None
Revaluation while servingNot applicableAverage Weekly Earnings

The table follows the LGA's 2017 pension board training slides. In the 1992 scheme the pension depends on your pay at the end of your career; in the 2015 scheme each year earns a slice of pension from that year's pay, and the pot is revalued each April. The LGA's career-average factsheet (18 May 2018) puts the 2015 slice at "roughly £16.75 for every £1000 you earn". Scotland accrues more slowly: the Scottish Public Pensions Agency's leaflet for members who joined before April 2015 gives 1/61.6 of pay a year.

Normal pension age and retiring early in each scheme

In the 2015 scheme the normal pension age is 60. The LGA slides give 55 as the earliest age, subject to reductions, and regulation 58 of the Firefighters' Pension Scheme (England) Regulations 2014 requires a member to have reached 55, have three months' qualifying service and have left scheme employment. If you leave early, a 2015 pension is payable from State Pension age, with a minimum of 65, according to the slides.

The 1992 scheme works differently. The earliest you can retire on an immediate 1992 pension is 50, with 25 years' service: a government briefing for MPs on the 2015 reforms says 1992 benefits stay unreduced "from age 50 with 25 or more years combined service in the 1992 and 2015 schemes", and the LGA's November 2023 retirement factsheet lists age 50 as the earliest 1992 retirement date. The LGA's commutation factsheet treats 55 as the 1992 normal pension age, and its 2017 slides give 60 as the age a deferred 1992 pension is paid.

For a transitional member the 2015 part is reduced if taken early. The LGA's retirement factsheet (November 2023) gives reductions in England from 20% at 55 down to 4.6% at 59 when you draw the 1992 part at the same time, and says you can instead leave the 2015 part until State Pension age. Those factors are set by the Government Actuary's Department and get revised, so treat the figures as a guide to scale. Your administrator quotes your own.

Firefighters pension scheme 1992 commutation factors and the 2015 lump sum

Both schemes let you swap pension for a tax-free lump sum. In the 2015 scheme regulation 71 sets a fixed rate: "for every £1 by which the amount of the member’s annual rate of pension is reduced, the member must be paid a lump sum of £12." The cap is 25% of the pension, or less if a bigger swap would be a scheme chargeable payment for tax.

In the 1992 scheme the lump sum is at most a quarter of the pension multiplied by a commutation factor from the Government Actuary's Department's guidance, so the rate varies with age. The LGA's April 2019 factsheet adds that rule B7 "restricts the lump sum to two and a quarter times the full amount of pension for firefighters who have reckoned less than 30 years’ service and retired before normal pension age". A 2013 order lets an authority lift that restriction, with the authority paying the cost into the notional pension fund; whether yours will is for your authority.

Firefighters pension scheme contribution rates

England's 2015 scheme moved on 1 April 2026 to five bands based on actual pensionable pay, under the Firefighters' Pension Scheme (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2026, following a consultation that closed on 29 January 2025. These are the LGA's figures for scheme year 2026/27:

BandAnnual pensionable payContribution rate
1Up to £36,13011.09%
2£36,131 to £45,40712.59%
3£45,408 to £66,90814.09%
4£66,909 to £190,69115.59%
5£190,692 or more17.09%

From 1 April 2027 the thresholds rise each year with the previous September's Consumer Prices Index. Before April 2026 there were four bands of 11.0%, 12.9%, 13.5% and 14.5%, with thresholds unrevised since 1 April 2018. In 2023 the Home Office said "The current contribution rates for the legacy 1992 firefighters’ pension scheme are higher than those in the 2015 reformed pension scheme", with 2006 rates lower. Your payslip shows what applies to you, and an adviser can explain the difference on the call-back.

Firefighters pension scheme McCloud remedy: what it is and who qualifies

In 2015 the government closed the final salary schemes but let older members stay or move across gradually. The Court of Appeal found in December 2018, in the McCloud (judges) and Sargeant (firefighters) cases, that this unlawfully discriminated against younger members. The Home Office stresses that "the transitional protection element of the 2015 reforms was found to be discriminatory, not the reformed scheme itself." The Supreme Court refused permission to appeal on 27 June 2019 and the government accepted the ruling on 15 July 2019, the LGA records. The Public Service Pensions and Judicial Offices Act then received Royal Assent on 10 March 2022.

The remedy period is 1 April 2015 to 31 March 2022. The LGA's eligibility factsheet says you need service in that period and to have been in the scheme (or, for firefighters, eligible to be an active member of the 2006 scheme) on or before 31 March 2012, with no disqualifying gap in service. Joining public service for the first time on or after 1 April 2012 puts you out of scope, though earlier service in another public scheme can count. Whether or not you were given transitional protection at the time, you are in scope if the tests are met.

You do not apply. A Treasury statement of 25 March 2020 confirmed no qualifying member needs to make a claim. The Firefighters' Pensions (Remediable Service) Regulations 2023 cover England and Wales and came into force on 1 October 2023.

Choosing 1992 or 2015 benefits for the years 1 April 2015 to 31 March 2022

The Home Office consultation states the choice: "Eligible members will be able to choose to receive legacy pension scheme benefits or benefits equivalent to those available under the 2015 reformed scheme for service between the period 1 April 2015 to 31 March 2022." Service outside those dates is not part of it. One detail surprises people: "All benefits accrued in the remedy period will be paid from the legacy scheme, regardless of the member choice, but will be calculated according to the scheme that has been chosen."

For serving and deferred members the decision falls at retirement. Under regulation 13 you tell the scheme you intend to claim between six and three months before your intended date, unless the scheme manager allows otherwise. After your remediable service statement arrives you generally have 12 weeks to decide, and can change your mind up to 10 working days before benefits become payable.

If you make no choice, the remedy-period years stay as legacy scheme service: section 2 of the Public Service Pensions and Judicial Offices Act 2022 treats them as pensionable under the legacy scheme, and 2015 benefits need an election under section 10. The exception is regulation 16 of the 2023 regulations: where the scheme manager, after consulting the scheme actuary, finds the 2015 benefits worth more, a choice for them is treated as made when the election period ends. The better option turns on pay history, years of service, retirement age and family, plus differences such as "whether benefits are payable to cohabitees and children born after service". A remediable service statement is hard to weigh alone. An FCA-authorised adviser will read both versions with you, your own dates to hand, on a call that costs nothing; it starts from the enquiry form here.

Already retired? Pensioners get an immediate choice that the Home Office says is irrevocable, and the recalculation "could lead to an increase, a decrease or no change in the benefits already received". Contributions move too: because 1992 contributions were higher, "virtually all eligible members will have a contributions adjustment". The same remedy in another uniformed scheme is explained in the police pension remedy.

What changes outside England?

Everything above describes England. Scotland's 2015 scheme is run by the Scottish Public Pensions Agency and accrues at 1/61.6 of pay. The LGA's retirement factsheet prints separate early-retirement reductions for England, Scotland and Wales, so figures differ. The remedy regulations cited here extend to England and Wales; Scottish and Northern Irish members should ask their own administrator how the remedy applies. For what follows a death see firefighters pension death benefits, and for yearly rises firefighters pension increases.

Firefighters pension scheme 1992 vs 2015: your questions

Can I still stay in the 1992 scheme?

Not for new service. What you built up there stays there, and the remedy may let you choose how the remedy period is counted.

Which scheme is better, the 1992 or the 2015?

It depends on your record. The 1992 scheme pays a final salary pension and can be taken earlier; the 2015 scheme has a normal pension age of 60, no 30-year cap and, the Home Office said in 2023, lower contribution rates than the 1992 scheme.

Will I be asked to claim the McCloud remedy?

No claim is needed. You will be asked to make the choice when you retire.

Where does the 2006 scheme fit?

It started in 2006 and closed to new entrants on 31 March 2015. If your remedy-period service rolls back to it, the Home Office said its contributions were lower than the 2015 scheme's, so you would be owed the difference.

Does the remedy cover retained firefighters?

Often, if the tests are met. The LGA says concurrent retained work is common for whole-time firefighters, and the Home Office confirmed all relevant positions must be treated as remediable where the conditions are met. Retained firefighters also have a separate Matthews remedy, so ask your administrator how the two fit together.

Planning your last day or about to return an election? Ask this page's short form for a call-back, and your fire service pension is laid alongside everything else you have saved by an FCA-authorised adviser.

Sources