The NASUWT is to issue a legal challenge to the government over pension changes.

The union argues that the government should have embarked on a valuation of the Teachers’ Pension Scheme to establish whether there was a problem with its viability and sustainability, before making changes.

The union has served a pre-action letter on the government Actuary’s Department, the Secretary of State for Education and HM Treasury, setting in train a claim for a judicial review. The basis of the legal action is that the NASUWT contends the Government had a statutory responsibility to conduct a valuation of the scheme.

The last valuation was conducted in 2006 and the union said regulations required a further valuation in a period not exceeding five years. Obviously the union must believe that a valuation would show that the teacher pension schemes were affordable etc .

If the union takes action it will be on top of the current legal case where a number of unions argue that change from RPI to CPI is unlawful.