What this page covers
- Does: Explain how the scheme works in plain English, with current rates, terms and rules.
- Doesn’t: Tell you what to choose. Pension decisions depend on your circumstances and need a regulated adviser.
- If you need advice: Speak to a regulated financial adviser, or contact MoneyHelper for free guidance.
If you were in a public service pension before 2015, you now have a foot in two different scheme designs: an older “legacy” scheme built on your final salary, and the “2015” scheme built on your career-average earnings. The McCloud remedy is what connects them, because for the years from 1 April 2015 to 31 March 2022 it lets eligible members have their benefits worked out under whichever of the two is better for them.
To make sense of that, it helps to understand how the two designs actually differ. This compares the legacy and 2015 schemes across the things that matter most, the normal pension age, how your pension builds up, and the lump sum, scheme by scheme. It explains what you are comparing; it does not tell you which is better for you, because for most people the remedy calculates that comparison for you, and the answer is personal.
In short
- Legacy schemes are final salary: your pension is based on your salary near the end of your career. The 2015 schemes are career average: each year banks a slice of pension based on that year’s pay.
- Legacy schemes mostly had a fixed normal pension age of 60 or 65. In the civilian 2015 schemes, normal pension age is tied to your State Pension age. The uniformed 2015 schemes keep a normal pension age of 60.
- The 2015 schemes generally have a more generous accrual rate, but they make you wait longer to take the pension unreduced. That is the core trade-off.
- The McCloud remedy gives eligible members the better of the two sets of benefits for 2015 to 2022. For most schemes that choice is made at retirement; in the LGPS it is automatic.
- There is no universal winner. Which design produces more depends on your pay pattern, your service, and when you take your pension.
Final salary versus career average
The single biggest difference is how your pension is built. A final salary scheme, the legacy design, ties your pension to your pensionable pay at or near retirement, multiplied by your years of service and an accrual fraction such as 1/80th or 1/60th. It rewards staying in the scheme and finishing on a high salary, because late pay rises lift the value of every year of past service.
A career average scheme, the 2015 design, banks a slice of pension every year based on that year’s earnings, and then revalues each slice over time. Nobody’s pension is hostage to their final salary, which is fairer for people whose pay is flat or who step down late in their careers, and less generous for those who climb steeply at the end. The technical name is Career Average Revalued Earnings, or CARE.
Two other differences ride alongside that. The 2015 schemes generally accrue at a faster rate (a bigger fraction each year) than the legacy schemes, but they usually attach a later normal pension age, so the better accrual is balanced by a longer wait. And the legacy schemes often paid an automatic lump sum, while most 2015 schemes pay none unless you choose to give up pension for one, which we cover in our guide to public sector lump sums.
The civilian schemes compared
| Scheme | Legacy (final salary) | 2015 scheme (career average) |
|---|---|---|
| NHS | 1995 section: NPA 60, 1/80 accrual plus an automatic lump sum of 3x pension. 2008 section: NPA 65, 1/60, no automatic lump sum. | NPA = State Pension age. Accrual 1/54, revalued in service at CPI plus 1.5%. |
| Teachers’ | Final salary. NPA 60 or 65 depending on when you joined; 1/80 (with automatic lump sum) or 1/60. | NPA = State Pension age. Accrual 1/57. |
| Civil Service | The pre-2015 arrangements (classic, premium, classic plus, nuvos). Mostly final salary with NPA 60; classic adds an automatic lump sum; nuvos is itself career average with NPA 65. | alpha. NPA = State Pension age. Accrual 1/43.1. |
| LGPS | Pre-2014 final salary. NPA 65 for most; 1/60 (with the option to commute) or, for pre-2008 service, 1/80 plus an automatic 3/80 lump sum. | Career average from 1 April 2014. NPA = State Pension age. Accrual 1/49. |
The pattern across all four is the same: a fixed, often earlier, legacy pension age paired with a slower accrual and sometimes an automatic lump sum, versus a State-Pension-linked age paired with faster accrual in the 2015 scheme. The civil service alpha scheme has the punchiest headline accrual (1/43.1), but it also has the State Pension age attached, so the comparison is never as simple as the fraction alone.
The uniformed schemes compared
The police, firefighter and armed forces schemes work differently from the civilian ones, and from each other. Their legacy schemes were built around early retirement after a full career of service, with distinctive features such as immediate pensions and faster accrual, so they do not map neatly onto a single 1/80-style fraction. Their 2015 schemes, importantly, kept a normal pension age of 60 rather than linking it to the State Pension age, in recognition of the nature of the work.
| Scheme | Legacy | 2015 scheme (career average) |
|---|---|---|
| Police | PPS 1987 and NPPS 2006: final salary, built for early retirement (the 1987 scheme allowed a full pension after 30 years’ service). See our Police pension guide for the detail. | NPA 60. Career average, accrual around 1/55.3. |
| Firefighters | FPS 1992 and 2006: final salary, with fast accrual towards an early full pension in the 1992 scheme. See our Firefighters’ pension guide. | NPA 60. Career average, accrual around 1/59.7. |
| Armed Forces | AFPS 75 and 05: distinctive designs with immediate or early pensions after qualifying service. See our Armed Forces pension guide. | AFPS 15. NPA 60. Career average, accrual 1/47, the most generous fraction in the public sector. |
For the uniformed services, the legacy schemes’ early-retirement features are exactly why the move to 2015 was so contentious, and why McCloud matters so much to these members. The detail of how your own legacy scheme accrued is best taken from your scheme guide or your own record.
Why there is no universal “better”
It is tempting to ask which design is simply better, but the honest answer is that it depends, and the things it depends on are personal. Final salary tends to favour members whose pay rose strongly towards the end, and those who can take the pension at the earlier legacy pension age. Career average tends to favour members with flatter or front-loaded earnings, part-time workers, and those who would in any case work to around their State Pension age. Revaluation matters too: the rate at which career-average slices grow while you work varies between schemes and changes the picture over a long career.
This is precisely why the McCloud remedy does not make you guess. For the remedy period, the scheme works out both sets of benefits and you get the better one. So understanding the comparison is useful for following what your statement shows you, not for second-guessing a calculation the scheme is required to do in your favour.
How this connects to McCloud
Between 1 April 2015 and 31 March 2022, eligible members are entitled to have their benefits for that period calculated under either their legacy scheme or the 2015 scheme, whichever is better. For most schemes you make that choice at the point you retire, using the figures in your Remediable Service Statement, which our guide on how to read your RSS walks through. The LGPS is the exception: it applies the comparison automatically through a statutory underpin, with no choice for you to make. From 1 April 2022 onwards, everyone is in the 2015 scheme regardless of age. You can follow where each scheme has got to with the statements in our McCloud remedy tracker.
How to find your own figures
The comparison that matters is the one run against your own record, and your scheme produces it. Your annual benefit statement, your scheme’s online portal and, where the remedy applies, your Remediable Service Statement are the documents to look at. The scheme guides on this site set out each design in full. For free and impartial guidance, MoneyHelper is the government-backed service, and for regulated advice on a decision that turns on your circumstances, you would speak to a financial adviser authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority.
Common questions
Which is better, final salary or career average?
Neither, universally. Final salary tends to suit members with strong late-career pay growth who can retire at the earlier legacy pension age; career average tends to suit flatter or front-loaded earners and part-timers. Because it depends on your own pay pattern and service, the McCloud remedy calculates both and gives eligible members the better outcome for the remedy years, rather than asking you to predict it.
Why is the 2015 pension age higher?
The civilian 2015 schemes link normal pension age to your State Pension age, which for most working members is 67 or higher, rather than the fixed 60 or 65 of the legacy schemes. The faster accrual in the 2015 schemes is, in effect, balanced by that later age. The uniformed 2015 schemes (police, firefighters, armed forces) are different: they kept a normal pension age of 60.
Do I have to choose between the two schemes?
For the McCloud remedy period (2015 to 2022), most schemes let you choose at retirement which set of benefits you want, based on your Remediable Service Statement. The LGPS does it automatically with no choice required. Outside the remedy period, there is no choice: everyone built up legacy benefits before 2015 and everyone is in the 2015 scheme from April 2022.
Did the LGPS change at a different time?
Yes. The Local Government Pension Scheme moved to career average on 1 April 2014, a year before the other schemes reformed in 2015. Its remedy period therefore runs from 1 April 2014. The principle is the same as the other schemes; only the start date differs.
Pension Plain’s take
The legacy-versus-2015 comparison gets framed as a contest, but it is better understood as a trade-off that the reforms made deliberately: a more generous build-up rate in exchange for a later, State-Pension-linked age in the civilian schemes. Whether that trade lands well for any individual depends on the shape of their career, which is why a blanket “the old scheme was better” misses as often as it lands. The useful thing for members is not to win an argument about which design is superior, but to read their own statement with the difference in mind, and to remember that for the remedy years the scheme is required to hand them the better of the two. That is the rare case in pensions where the system does the optimising for you.
This article is general information about how public service pension schemes are designed. It isn’t financial advice, and which scheme produces more for you depends on your service, your pay history and when you take your pension. The accrual rates and pension ages are the standard scheme figures as of June 2026 and your own benefits may differ. For your personal figures, contact your pension scheme. For free impartial guidance use MoneyHelper, and for regulated advice on a decision speak to a financial adviser authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority. Pension Plain is not authorised or regulated by the FCA.
Key official sources used
- BMA, NHS pensions (1995 / 2008 / 2015)
- Civil Service Pensions (classic to alpha)
- LGPS member site
- Forces Pension Society (AFPS 15)
- MoneyHelper, Pensions and retirement
Sources checked June 2026. Civilian accrual rates and AFPS 15 sourced; police and firefighter 2015 rates and the uniformed legacy detail to be confirmed against scheme sources before publication.