UNISON response to Taxpayers' Alliance pensions nonsense

Wed 11 July 2012

“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

http://www.unison-scotland.org.uk/news/2011/novdec/2711.htm

UNISON Scotland pensions pages

http://www.unison-scotland.org.uk/pensions/index.html

False Economy website and video: why the cuts are wrong

Check out the False Economy website http://falseeconomy.org.uk/ from the people who brought you The Other Taxpayer's Alliance http://www.taxpayersalliance.org  - the good one! And here's their video about Why the cuts are wrong.


Why cuts are the wrong cure from False Economy on Vimeo.


More on Scotland from STUC's There Is A Better Way
and UNISON Scotland's Public Works


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Big business group rattled by UNISON video

Well it is clear who the Tax Dodgers Alliance see as their main opponent in their campaign to attack services for the people of the UK – they have been burning the midnight oil over at their plush offices in the right-wing enclave in Tufton Street (provided free by Avanta, and their Chief Executive David Alberto) to cut and paste their lists of so-called ‘non-jobs’ onto UNISON’s video attacking public spending cuts - which has been posted on the union's Million Voices campaign page http://www.unison.org.uk/million/ .

Utilising the Telegraph blog of Tory MEP Daniel Hannan they have put a response video out in the media to claim (as they always do) that there are loads of non-jobs in the public sector.

Hannan, in case you don't immediately recognise him, is the man who recently rubbished the NHS as a ’60-year mistake’ in America (on Fox news - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiSPRkq28iU - it's worth a look too.)

The so-called Taxpayers' lists of so-called non-jobs are also instructive. Many of them (for all the fancy names) are about dealing with the media. Are they suggesting that the public sector doesn’t have to deal with the misinformation that they and others pump out on a daily basis? Indeed, I notice they themselves have just appointed a ‘New Media Co-ordinator’. I assume that is someone to co-ordinate, ‘new media’ rather than a ‘new’ co-ordinator of all media. So, assuming that someone deals with the ‘old’ media, that means that they have at least two. Well what is sauce for the goose …!

Dramatherapists? – I think most clinicians know the value of therapy in healthcare – obviously the TPA neither knows nor cares. Green jobs – doesn’t surprise me. What are the TPA’s policies on climate change? Do they accept that carbon emissions are increasing global warming or not? Do they think that the polluters are going to reform themselves without regulation? Most people actually think that the public sector should lead the way in reducing carbon emissions and carry out the function of protecting the environment – who do they think should do it? Exxon?

But the one I am most surprised to notice is the ‘Street Football Co-ordinator’. Maybe they think people have forgotten their most widely dropped clanger – but we haven’t. This post was created by Moray Council in 2006 and – two years later - the TPA whipped up its usual froth of righteous indignation about it. However Moray Council’s press office (yes that non-job) had other ideas and put the true story out.

The job was in fact part-time, and therefore the cost was half what the TPA – who had only noticed the top-line salary – claimed. It was only part-funded by the council, the rest being paid by the police, by other agencies and by the private sector – the TPA’s chums – who were delighted that the work was taking kids away from vandalism and other anti social behaviour. So much so in fact that the council has been able to secure funding until later this year –from all the original partners.

So now we know – if you want increased vandalism, environmental damage, poorer healthcare and authorities who are unable to put their views into the media – lets thank the TPA!

Chris Bartter
UNISON Scotland Communications Officer


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