No, Humza Yousaf will not receive a £52,000 per annum pension immediately after he steps down as Scotland's First Minister

By: Siri Christiansen
May 3 2024

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Source: Facebook/Screenshot (Modified by Logically Facts)

The claim

On April 29, 2024, Scotland's First Minister and leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP), Humza Yousaf, announced his resignation after 13 months in the post. Yousaf was scheduled to face two votes of no confidence after his party's decision to end its power-sharing agreement with the Scottish Greens after a conflict regarding the government's climbdown on climate targets. He will stay in the role until a successor is found.

In the days following the announcement, several social media posts claimed Yousaf would receive a pension of more than £52,000 per annum for the rest of his life, effective as soon as he steps down as First Minister.

This, users claim, is due to paragraph 557 in the Explanatory Notes for the Scottish Parliamentary Pensions Act 2009, under which "First Ministers are entitled to an annual pension equivalent to 50 percent of their office-holder salary payable from the day after ceasing to hold office, irrespective of their length of service in the post or their age." 

According to these social media posts, Yousaf's First Minister salary is £104,584 — which, cut in half, is £52,292.

Source: Facebook/Screenshot (Modified by Logically Facts)

This has caused strong reactions, as Yousaf is only 39 years old. 

"THIS IS SO WRONG! Whoever heard of getting a 'pension' the moment you quit your job, regardless of your age?" one Facebook user wrote.

"If there is no money for our pensions how come there is money to pay his 30 yrs early?" another Facebook user asked.

This number, however, is false — Yousaf is not getting his pension early, and it's nowhere near £52,000 per annum.

The facts

The Scottish Parliament has refuted the claim and said Yousaf's First Minister pension will be around £2,000 per annum and payable from the age of 65.

"A political website didn't fact-check its story. It immediately took down the article after we made clear it was factually wrong," a spokesperson for the Scottish Parliament told Logically Facts. 

Under the Scottish Parliamentary Pensions Act 2009, the First Minister's pension is either 1/40 or 1/50 of the person's final salary for each year in office.

The legal quote this claim is based on — "First Ministers are entitled to an annual pension equivalent to 50 percent of their office-holder salary payable from the day after ceasing to hold office, irrespective of their length of service in the post or their age" — does indeed come from the Explanatory Notes of the Scottish Parliamentary Pensions Act 2009. However, the social media posts ignore its context: the notes clearly state that the First Minister and Presiding Officer pension was a separate pension scheme set up as Part S of the 1999 pensions order. 

This section of the Explanatory Notes is meant to complement paragraph 21 in the Scottish Parliamentary Pensions Act 2009, which states that Part S of the 1999 order is to continue to have an effect only for those individuals who had been First Minister or Presiding Officer before the new rules changed, or those persons who receive benefits in respect of such individuals. 

For everyone else, the 2009 Act removed any future entitlement to this arrangement. Since Yousaf was not a First Minister before 2009, he does not fulfil the criteria for receiving this pension scheme.

The verdict

This claim is based on prior legislation from 1999 that has since been replaced. Humza Yousaf will receive a pension of around £2,000 per annum, and it will not be payable until age 65 and over. Therefore, we have rated this claim as false.