“Financially illiterate drivel aimed at advancing a political agenda to make pensioners poorer” says public services union
UNISON,
Scotland largest union in Scotland’s public services, is today calling on the
so-called Taxpayers' Alliance (TPA), to get its facts straight after the shady
right-wing, low-tax pressure group attacked local government pensions. Again.
Payments
into the Local Government Pension Scheme in Scotland last year were
£299.944 million MORE than being paid out to pensioners. This inconvenient fact
is ignored by the self styled think tank - who likewise seem not to have
noticed a connection between the cuts in council workforce that that they have
been urging and decline in local government workers paying in to the pension
schemes
The
tax dodgers' alliance report points out the LGPS like is maturing with an
increasing number of pensioners. What they fail to mention is that this is the
case with almost all pension funds in the UK.
Similarly
unmentioned are;
·
That the
pension funds enjoy an enormous income from investment – and so aren’t entirely
reliant on contributions from members and employers
·
That a
recent (2011) actuarial valuation of the Local Government Pension Scheme
Scotland was very positive
·
The LGPS
Scotland is currently taking in almost £300 million per year more than it is
paying out.
·
Even in the
event that the scheme was felt to be under pressure - a cost sharing agreement
is in place.
·
Just 5p in
every £1 paid in council tax goes towards pensions. Councils get only 25% of
their revenue from council tax, 75% comes from other sources, including business
rates and local government grants.
·
The numbers
in the tax Dodgers Alliance report would only begin to make sense if everyone in local government decided to retire on the same day - a social, political and
actuarial absurdity.
Mike
Kirby, UNISON Scottish Secretary, said:
"This right-wing pressure group never lets facts get in the way of attacking
public services and the people that deliver them. This is financially illiterate
drivel. The TPA are simply out of touch with reality.
Pensions
for local government are an affordable way of people saving for their retirement
- and the results of that are modest enough the average pensions for council
workers in Scotland is just £4,000 a year, dropping to just £2,800 for
women.
We need to bring
private sector pensions up to a decent level, not pull public sector pensions
down - two thirds of employees do not get a single penny in contributions from
their employers towards their pensions. The government's plans for
auto-enrolment will not go far enough to keep people off means tested
benefits.”
ENDS
Notes to
editors
On Pension
fund suprpluses in Scotland see
UNISON
Scotland pensions pages
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