Pensions

Save the Local Government Pension Scheme!

Local government employers have announced that they want to reduce LGPS benefits and increase employee contributions for at least two years. The changes apply to our members in local government, police, education, probation, meat hygiene, housing associations, Passenger Transport Executives, the Environment Agency the voluntary and private sectors.

UNISON will now be pulling out all the stops to change the employers' minds and organise industrial action if we can't make them see sense. We need YOU to be involved in our campaign to make it a success. And we need your friends and family to join in to let the public know the truth behind the employers' lack of good sense.

They propose to:

• Remove the 85 Rule from 1 April 2006. They say this is necessary under the Age Discrimination legislation.
• Offer NO protection to existing members of the scheme.
• Increase employee contributions by 1% from 1 April 2006 and 2007 and review it in 2008.
• Increase the age at which benefits can be taken from 50 to 55 from 1 April 2006, four years ahead of the date necessary under the 2004 Finance Act.

To add insult to injury they say that negotiations must be concluded by mid October so that any changes can be reflected in the November local government settlement. This would be an impossible timetable for most local negotiations, let alone on a pension scheme covering over 2 million workers.

Other public sector pensions

Parallel talks going on via the TUC with Alan Johnson, DTI Secretary of State, seem likely to result in very different proposals for other public sector pension schemes and a very much more realistic negotiating timetable. At the moment, the talks are suggesting that there will be no imposed increase in the public sector pension age, more flexibility around retirement and a realistic timetable for negotiations and consultation with members of pension schemes.

It looks as if our members in the LGPS - already the least favourable of all public sector pension schemes - are getting the Cinderella treatment! It could mean that teaching assistants working alongside teachers will have to pay more for an even worse pension. The same goes for social care staff working with NHS employees. Other groups of LGPS members in police, probation, FE,HE, the voluntary and private sectors, Passenger Transport Executives and the Environment Agency are also increasingly likely to be involved in 'Local Area Agreements' and other forms of joined-up working the Government is asking for.

http://www.unison.org.uk/lgpension/index.asp