in it.
Here is the whole truth, as it was printed in the Express and Echo.
Dear Editor,
The attack on the Local Government Pension Scheme by Mr B Brewer, Pension scheme is absurdly generous, Echo letters, Monday 22nd Feb, uses figures that would be laughably unrepresentative, were they not so dangerously inaccurate and half-baked.
Dangerous, because his words perpetuate the Tory propaganda that those on Local Government Pensions (LGPS) can live in the lap of luxury. Far, far from true.
Here is the truth about LGPS: -
The average LGPS pension in payment is around £4,000 a year – far from the £10,500 Mr Brewer would like to pretend it is.
Scheme members contribute up to 7.5 % of their pay, which means that over 50% of the cost of LGPS pensions is met by local government employees themselves.
Other employees do not subsidise the LGPS. Only 5% of income from council tax goes towards the pension scheme. And the fact that it is even 5% and cannot be lower is because previous Tory governments encouraged local government employers to take ‘pensions contributions holidays’ so that for years only the employees’ contributions went into the LGPS. Yes, during the vile days of Thatcherism, even Devon County Council paid less than its usual share into the LGPS.
So it is sheer effrontery for Tories now to try to attack public services and the LGPS. The LGPS is funded with actual money, actually paid in, and think about this: because it is real money its investment makes a direct contribution to our economy. There is currently over £100 billion held by LGPS funds being invested, creating jobs and helping to regenerate our economy.
If Mr Brewer wants to attack irresponsible pension schemes then please can he point his finger at those weak private sector schemes which will cost us dearly as tax-payers, because workers in the private sector forced to retire on them will need State support. That is the true pensions scandal. That’s where the legal eagles need to look Mr Brewer.
No comments:
Post a Comment