'Reasonable endeavours' is the phrase used in the new law. For retained firefighters and bereaved families across Northern Ireland, the meaning is much plainer than that: the system is being told to go back, find the people it may have missed, and give them another chance to sort pension gaps that should not have dragged on this long. The New Firefighters' Pension Scheme (Amendment) Order (Northern Ireland) 2026 was made on 29 July 2026 by the Department of Health, with approval from the Department of Finance, and comes into force on 1 September 2026. According to the legislation published on legislation.gov.uk, it is set to expand pension redress for retained firefighters, including cases involving opt-outs, older service and death benefits.

The biggest change is the creation of a new category: the retained firefighter opt-out member. In plain terms, that covers certain retained firefighters who joined the scheme on or after 6 April 2006, later became eligible for special membership, but had either opted out of paying contributions or stopped paying during part of the relevant period. The Order allows that opted-out service to be bought back as special service. Where the firefighter has died, a spouse, civil partner or child can step in. The scheme Board must try to notify eligible people before 1 November 2026. Once that notice lands, the clocks start running: applicants normally have six months to ask for a statement and up to 12 months from notification to elect to buy back the service.

Families are also brought much more clearly into view. The Order creates a missed pension lump sum grant for cases where a deceased retained firefighter would likely have been entitled to pension payments but died before those payments could be made. It also creates a survivor's missed pension lump sum grant for some applicants who do not qualify for an additional death grant under the existing rules. Those grants are not automatic cheques. The Order sets out clear safeguards too, including a full bar where an applicant is convicted of murdering the deceased, and discretion for the Board to withhold payment in manslaughter cases. Even so, the direction of travel is obvious: the scheme is being widened to catch families who may previously have fallen through the gaps.

Just as important are the dates. A run of deadlines that had previously stopped at 30 April 2025 are being pushed back to 1 September 2027. That covers parts of the scheme dealing with death grants, elections to purchase service during the extended limited period, and some conversion rights within the pension scheme. There is a practical point here. If the Board has not managed to notify someone despite making reasonable efforts, the Order leaves the door open for applications or elections after 1 September 2027. That matters in older cases where people may have moved, records may be incomplete, or families may simply never have been told they had any entitlement at all.

The legislation also widens the route for converting standard membership to special membership. That reaches beyond currently serving staff. Deferred members, some pensioner members and people already drawing certain pensions can now fall within the conversion rules, provided they meet the scheme conditions and act within the required timescales. For former retained firefighters, that is one of the more useful parts of the Order. The rules also allow some of these applications and elections to be made on a separate timetable rather than forcing everything through the same bundle of paperwork. In real life, that could make the process less punishing for people coming back to pension issues years after they first left the job.

There is another telling detail in the drafting. The Board is given room to estimate service and pay where historic records are missing. If it cannot pin down the figures from its own files and an applicant cannot supply the documents, it may use the records it does hold, alongside local experience, to make a calculation. In some cases, the default assumption is that retained pensionable pay was 25 per cent of the pay of a comparable whole-time regular firefighter. That tells its own story about the age and patchiness of some of these claims. Northern readers will recognise the pattern from other public service disputes: workers and families are asked to prove service from years back while official systems are still trying to catch up.

There are firm duties on timing too. Where the Board decides a missed pension lump sum grant or a survivor's missed pension lump sum grant is payable, it must pay within three months of receiving the application. Where a person asks for a statement about buying back opted-out service, the Board must also respond within three months with the service period, the contributions due and the pay figures used. The explanatory material says no impact assessment was produced because no effect on the private or voluntary sectors is foreseen. That may be true in paperwork terms, but the real effect sits in public service households across Northern Ireland. This is the kind of devolved rule change that rarely makes much noise outside Belfast, yet it matters a great deal if you are the one still trying to secure a fair pension outcome after years of service.