Matthews second options exercise

In 2022, following legal challenges, the Government accepted that retained firefighters should be entitled to claim service going back to the beginning of their employment. 

This means a second ‘Matthews’ exercise was needed to allow eligible retained firefighters to buy pension service as a special member of the FPS 2006, backdated to the start date of their employment.

For information about eligibility and to understand more please visit the national member site fpsmember.org here.

Current situation

FRAs have been collecting information, and in some cases payments, from members to buy the pensionable service. This information has then been sent on to us as the scheme administrator. Regrettably we’ve not been able to process the bulk of claims up to now.

Unfortunately, much of the processing work involves manual calculations due to our software not being able to cater for this project. This exercise is also complex in nature and in some cases overlaps with the wider Sargeant Remedy project, adding to the complexity of the task. This is not an excuse for our failure to provide an acceptable service, but it is one of the reasons for the delay.

Importantly, we have changed how we manage outstanding work. These changes are based on lessons learned from earlier approaches that did not improve things as much as we had hoped.

An Oversight Board has been established, including representatives from the Local Government Association and nominated Scheme Managers from our Fire and Rescue Authority clients. This Board agrees the order in which cases are prioritised, monitors progress, and challenges delays, allowing resources to be focused on completing casework rather than responding to repeated enquiries.

Your Fire and Rescue Authority will receive regular updates on progress from the Oversight Board and WYPF and we will also publish updates on this web page.

You can download a copy of the latest comprehensive delivery plan here.

Processing cases

Our dedicated Matthews Team is working through cases as quickly as we can based on the priority order given to us by the Oversight Board and outlined in the delivery plan above. As the plan sets out, special pensioner cases are being prioritised. Active and deferred members will follow in due course, and as quickly as possible.

Payments are being processed in the order they’re received. Please allow approximately six to eight weeks from the date of receipt for your payment to be processed.

Keeping you up to date

We’ll keep updating this page and we will also give your FRA periodical updates like this that they can share with you.

Thank you for your ongoing patience while we work through this project. 

 

Page updated 2 September 2026

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