Pension fund finances improved sharply in December

I don’t know if UNISON Active readers spotted this story on the BBC website? http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/1/hi/business/8453857.stm It followed the opportunist attack on the Local Government pension scheme by the Liberal Democrats in the run up to the general election. The press release from the CLG about that attack said this: "This story does not stand up to scrutiny.....

"Claims about the size of a deficit for the local government pension scheme are pure speculation. This year's valuation of the fund has not been carried out yet and is legally required to be based on market levels at the end of March - no one has any accurate way of knowing what that will be. There are regulations in place to ensure the scheme remains fair, solvent, protected against risk, and affordable to the taxpayer - these rules also ensure that any deficits identified in the valuation cannot be passed on directly to council tax payers”

It’s becoming clear that we public sector workers face a real threat to our pension schemes if the Tories get elected at the general election or if they form a coalition with the Liberal Democrats. Both these parties have called for cuts to our pensions and some have called for the schemes to be closed to new entrants and for final salary schemes to be replaced with defined contribution schemes. So far Labour have resisted any such attacks. Minister John Healey said in May 2009 that a defined contribution scheme would result in the average pension for a local Government worker reducing from it’s current £4,000 to about £1,000.

Chris Tansley
Chair Unison Local Government executive