Scotland’s public pensions agency has been forced into a climbdown after moving to recover overpayments from hundreds of ill-health retired police officers.
The issue is linked to warnings raised with the then First Minister Nicola Sturgeon nearly a decade ago by a whistleblower.
The Herald can reveal retired officers were told by the Scottish Public Pensions Agency (SPPA) that their pensions had been overpaid after officials discovered errors in the way benefits had been calculated.
According to the SPPA, some 269 ill-health retired police officers were affected by a miscalculation, with around 60 already told directly that overpayments could be recovered.
But ministers have now intervened to halt any recovery — scrapping the clawback and ordering that money already deducted from some pensions be returned.
Police pension campaigners described the move as a "morally bankrupt attempt to take money from our most vulnerable".
It comes after public spending regulators Audit Scotland issued a damning report saying that the agency underestimated the scale and complexity of implementing a landmark court ruling over tens of thousands of public sector pensions, and failed to be sufficiently transparent with scheme members, ministers and MSPs.
The report was issued after The Herald revealed how Scotland was facing a 1.7 billion bill in a public pensions age discrimination scandal that locked out thousands of retired people from their full nest eggs for years.
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