The civil servant responsible for increasing the state pension age to 67 is retiring at age 61 with a £1.8 million pension pot.
It’s true the former permanent secretary at the Department for Work and Pensions had a pension equivalent to over £1.8 million, in 2017. But civil servants are only responsible for developing and implementing policy. He himself didn’t decide to raise the pension age.
A Facebook post, which has been shared thousands of times, makes a number of claims about Sir Robert Devereux KCB, the former permanent secretary at the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).
The post says Sir Robert is the “civil servant responsible for increasing the state pension age to 67”, and that he is “retiring at 61 with a £1.8 million pension pot”. It claims “he will receive £85000 a year and lump sum of £245000.”[sic]
We first wrote about this claim in August 2019 and, as we’ve explained before, it’s missing some context.
The figures regarding Sir Robert’s pension allocation are broadly correct, according to the DWP annual report and accounts for the year 2016/17. By 31 March 2017, he had accrued a pension of £80,000-£85,000 a year, plus a £240,000-£245,000 lump sum on retirement. According to the accounts, the cash equivalent transfer value at the time was about £1.8 million.
However, the DWP annual report and accounts for the following year, 2017-18, state that Sir Robert “opted out of PCSPS from 31 March 2012” and “as such there is no requirement to disclose his pension values”. PCSPS is the Principal Civil Service Pension Scheme.
Sir Robert retired from the civil service in January 2018, on his 61st birthday. People over 55 who opt out of their pension schemes are entitled to access any money that was invested in it.
Since then, he has taken up a new role with American cloud-based software company Salesforce. According to his LinkedIn page, he began this role in September 2019.
Who was ‘responsible’ for the rise in the pension age?
The post claims Sir Robert is the “civil servant responsible for increasing the state pension age to 67”. While he did oversee DWP during the time that increases to the state pension age were implemented, he wasn’t part of the department when the plan was initially put forward and he himself didn’t make the final decision on the increase.
The Pensions Act 2007 provided for an increase in the state pension age to 66 between 2024-26, to 67 between 2034-36 and to 68 between 2044-46.
In 2011, this timeline was accelerated. The state pension age increased to 66 between 2018 and 2020, and in 2014 the Pensions Act 2014 meant that the state pension age would increase to 67 between 2026 and 2028. Again, these were decisions made by the government of the time, not by Sir Robert himself.
The policy to increase the state pension age was introduced by a Labour government, then the Conservative-led coalition decided to accelerate the timeline. These policies needed to be approved by MPs before the changes could take effect, and the 2007, 2011 and 2014 Acts were considered and approved by both Houses of Parliament.
Permanent secretaries and other civil servants do not themselves make policy decisions, such as whether to raise the state pension age. They help the government of the day develop and implement policy, but it is the government who decides which policies to introduce.
Sir Robert became the permanent secretary of DWP in 2011. The permanent secretary is “the most senior civil servant in a department”.
Civil servants agree to a code that says they will serve the government of the day, no matter which political party is leading it.
False or misleading claims online have the potential to harm individuals, groups and democratic processes and institutions. Online claims can spread fast and far, and are difficult to contain and correct.
This article is part of our work fact checking potentially false pictures, videos and stories on Facebook. You can read more about this—and find out how to report Facebook content—here. For the purposes of that scheme, we’ve rated this claim as missing context because Sir Robert wasn’t responsible for the decision to raise the pension age, even though he did help to implement the change.
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