The first public statement that our pension benefits are to be cut to pay for the bankers bail outs was made yesterday at the Local Authority Pension Fund Forum conference in Bournemouth. Bob Holloway a civil servant, on his own final salary scheme, and a regulator of the LGPS used the conference as an opportunity to announce the potential end of final salary benefits.
"The government has a huge public sector deficit to address. As a result, this has turned into a government initiative to improve public sector finance. "Given the amount of money involved - and it is a big issue - I have this feeling the government will use that to assist towards that goal of halving the deficit in the next four years."
http://www.professionalpensions.com/professional-pensions/news/1564863/government-reform-lgps-bid-slash-budget-deficit
UNISON Active predicted this announcement in the 'To Hell In a Handcart' piece (see link below).
Meanwhile at the public sector bank RBS, the board was demanding an extra £1.6bn in cash for bonuses. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/163850bn-official-cost-of-the-bank-bailout-1833830.html
Of course Bob Holloway failed to mention that the LGPS is a funded scheme and depends on returns from our investments, he said nothing to redress the decline in investment returns over the last 15 years and the clear fact the bankers drove the economy to the wall. If there is going to be reform of the LGPS then it must be on our terms, with member representation at its heart, the legal reform to make sure the funds invest only in our interests and the reduction in the number of funds to make them more efficient and most importantly the end to the exploitation of our money by the fund managers and investment bankers.
Recent UNISON research has demonstrated that some funds are losing up to 40% of their investment income to fund management charges. A disgraceful rip off.
The LGPS and public sector pensions will be at the heart of the election as each party presents its solution to cutting back on its borrowing, We must make sure that we fight off these plans and have some clear ones of our own!
To read more go to:
http://unisonactive.blogspot.com/2009/11/to-hell-in-handcart-via-bankers-bonuses.html
