This. The 'cuts' are being implemented to bring down the structural deficit. Future pensions liability is part of the UK's annually managed expenditure which has a marginal at best effect on the structural deficit, which is made up primarily of departmental spending. That is why, when you add annually managed expenditure and departmental spending limits together to get total government spending the total cuts are in fact just 0.6% this year.
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This. The 'cuts' are being implemented to bring down the structural deficit. Future pensions liability is part of the UK's annually managed expenditure which has a marginal at best effect on the structural deficit, which is made up primarily of departmental spending. That is why, when you add annually managed expenditure and departmental spending limits together to get total government spending the total cuts are in fact just 0.6% this year.
Curious Orange
Punxsatawney Phil
I think that this thread actually clearly shows the problems that we have as a country when it comes to pensions. The disparities arising between what people get are largely due to the proliferation of different schemes that exist - and the fact that rules keep changing, and that there isn't a consistent funding model. Should people really complain about Executive Pension Plans if they are fully funded when the some local government schemes are unfunded?
The 'politics of envy' is exactly what you Tories are doing - 'ooh look, public sector workers have got better pensions than you, so let's cut those pensions in the name of fairness. You'll be no better off yourself, but you can feel good that someone else has been dragged down.' Tories really are the most hypocritical Twunts!
Are you sure about that? Who is paying for these public sector pensions?
This is a line which always fucks me off. Why do people always think they speak, and assume various beliefts, on behalf of all tax-payers? I'm a hard working tax payer and am happy to speak for myself.
Brilliant posts, Xenophon!
What's 'brilliant' about it? It is not about "unilaterally punishing the public sector workforce for the sins of the top guys", it is about the affordability of public sector pension schemes.
Or is this all just some political game by militant trade union leaders?
How many public sector employees earn £32K a year?? What percentage of the public sector workforce earns this or above? I'll hazard a guess - very few. Again, Tory agitprop about "unfairness" when their mates in Banking are coining it in with tax breaks far and above any public sector manager.
The real 'Middle England' is £21K a year, that's the median wage for the whole of the UK. How much of a public sector paypacket goes to fuel a £500K pension windfall among that lot? That's before the cut in pensions, and that's the people who the government are after, the little people, not just the few 'mandarins' in the NHS.
'NHS Mandarins', 'Union Barons' - more Tory adjectives while the real mandarins and barons are propping up the bar with them at the Garrick Club
The real 'Middle England' is £21K a year, that's the median wage for the whole of the UK. How much of a public sector paypacket goes to fuel a £500K pension windfall among that lot? That's before the cut in pensions, and that's the people who the government are after, the little people, not just the few 'mandarins' in the NHS.
'NHS Mandarins', 'Union Barons' - more Tory adjectives while the real mandarins and barons are propping up the bar with them at the Garrick Club
A significant proportion of the teachers who are on strike.
Pay Scales 2010-2011 (June 2010) | NUT : National Union of Teachers - The largest fully qualified primary and secondary education union
A lot of people will have some sympathy with xenophon's point of view, all the while nothing is done to ensure the superrich and corporations fail to pay their fair share.
The real disgrace is that the Labour party avoided dealing with this problem.
Hatterlovesbrighton
something clever
To be fair they did try to resolve it in 2004 but caved in to the unions for fear of losing the election
Indeed, but it's not just relatively well off (compared to hospital cleaners for example) teachers on strike though is it? And the cuts won't just affect teachers' pensions. ALL TOGETHER the public sector is underpaid, stop a nurse and ask her.
I was referring to the other problem of the super rich not paying their way and corporation tax remaining at just 21% for most of Labour's term.
But yes, Labour bottled pension reform too. In fact, they bottled many tough decisions if you ask me.
sten_super
Brain Surgeon
Suggesting that teachers are striking in some kind of solidarity with the public sector as a whole is a complete falsehood, if that is what you are trying to imply. The teaching unions were balloted and voted to strike because the changes were apparently unfair on them.
i think you ahve mis-understood a key issue here.
The £500k 'pension pot' is the amount of money that someone would need so SAVE during their working life, in order to buy an annuity that would pay out the pension of a teacher on £32k, when they retire.
blue'n'white
Well-known member
Blimey - I think someone actually understands !!
When we started work we, all of us, made a choice.
That choice was between a low paid job which had a pension at the end of it and a higher paid job where you had to provide for your own pension
It's no good, after having made that choice , to come on here whining about "the fat cats" cos where i work there ain't any.
What Cameron should be doing in the civil service is to wipe out some of the layers of management which is where most of the money gets wasted - in my particular field there are an eye watering THIRTEEN layers of management most of which do f*** all to actually get their money.
My wife is a nurse, in an NHS hospital, and has been for over 20 years. She earns more than £32k, and deserves it.