Saturday 26 November 2011

£300m Scottish local government pension surplus

Research by UNISON - Scotland’s largest union in public services has shown that payments into local government pension funds in Scotland are £299.944million more than being paid out to pensioners. This figure does not include income to the pension funds from investments. The NHS scheme is also £2bn in surplus across the UK, nailing the myth pushed by UK ministers that more money is needed for public sector pensions.

The figures are published on the eve of a strike on November 30th which will see hundreds of thousand of public servants take industrial action over Government imposed attacks on public sector pensions. 

The UK Government has imposed a change in the way future pension rises will be calculated from being based on the Retail price Index (RPI) to the Consumer price Index(CPI) this shift will mean that over time pensions will lose around fifteen per cent of their value.  In addition there are also threats that the retirement age will be raised.

These changes are being imposed against a background of 5% inflation and a pay freeze across local government and the NHS.  Members of the Local Government pension scheme pay between 5.5% and 8% of their salary into the scheme. As the value of wages drops this puts pressure on to not join or to opt out of the pension scheme. This in turn impacts on the stability of the pension funds and greater welfare costs when staff retire.

 Speaking about the figures UNISON’s Scottish Secretary Mike Kirby said:

“These figures show that public sector pension funds are not just healthy - but valuable contributors to the economy  - funding much needed investment.The current attacks on both pensions and on public sector employment will be bad for the schemes  - and in the long run bad for the economy. The UK Government won’t be putting any of the money they raise or save from stealing from pensions into the schemes  - just using it to pay back debt run up to bail out their friends the bankers – it’s not justifiable or fair and people won’t stand for it”


Fund
Contributions (000s)
Benefits (000s)
Surplus (000s)
Falkirk
73,402
55,940
17,462
Fife
71,216
49,757
21,459
Dumfries & Galloway
31,062
24,295
6,767
Highland
53,283
37,870
15,413
Lothian
191,521
153,236
38,285
North East Scot
124,005
90,568
33,437
Orkney
9,236
4,528
4,708
Borders
21,253
15,484
5,769
Shetland
17,565
8,803
8,762
Strathclyde
588,714
471,142
117,572
Tayside
101,176
70,866
30,310


TOTAL
299,944

1 comment:

  1. Anonymous11:11 am

    If this is true surely its a silver bullet to kill off the governments claims. Why have I not heard more of this in the media. Are the figures solid?

    ReplyDelete