You may have read in the press that a small minority of public sector pensioners have been overpaid since 1978.
The overpayment only applies to those currently receiving a pension who had pensionable service between 1978 and 1997 and have attained state pension age.
It has been caused by the way that the annual inflation increase has been applied to some pensions with a Guaranteed Minimum Pension (GMP) entitlement.
We have only just been advised of this mistake by the pension authorities.
Our early estimate is that about 5,000 of our pensioners are affected. We will be writing to all of those affected once we have completed our investigations.
Rest assured that, if you are affected, the existing level of your pension will not be reduced.
Neither will you receive a bill for the overpayment.
The amount that your pension is increased by in the future may be reduced as a result of the overpayment though.
This is because in the future we must calculate what the correct pension that you should be receiving is and not increase your current pension above that level to stop further overpayments. We increase pensions for inflation each April.
As you can imagine, it will take time to work through this issue and we would ask for your patience whilst we identify who is affected.
If we or the pension authorities do not contact you at all, you are unaffected.
More information is available by clicking on the two links below