A report is out today (PDF format 762K, external website) from the Public Sector Pensions Commission, which was set up in 2009 by the Institute of Economic Affairs, the Institute of Directors and others. You can read the press release on their website here.
It argues that public sector pensions are worth more than 40% of salary on average and sets out a "menu of reform options" (see Kat Baker's write up on Personnel Today's website). The TUC has attacked the report, publishing figures showing the impact that measures in the recent Budget will have on public sector pensions, in particular the linking of public sector pension schemes to Consumer Prices Index (CPI) rather than Retail Prices Index (RPI) inflation. Its also worth reading Nigel Stanley's post on the ToUChstone blog.
NB The Public Sector Pensions Commission is different from the Public Service Pension Commission which has just been set up by government and is chaired by ex-Labour Cabinet member John Hutton. That will publish an interim report in September 2010.
This Friday, XpertHR will publish the findings on pensions of our 2010 benefits survey of 443 employers (if you subscribe to XpertHR, read our summary of key findings). These show, for instance, that final salary schemes are in place at 94% of public sector organisations compared with 37% of manufacturers and 31% of private sector services firms. Of this type of scheme, just 19% of those in the public sector are closed to new members compared with 71% of those in the manufacturing sector.
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Comments (1)
We've been looking at some of the claims made by the Public Sector Pension Commission and the unions in this debate over at Full Fact, and have found that the issues are much more nuanced than either are prepared to admit. Have a look if you're interested: http://bit.ly/9xz1OC
Posted by Full Fact | July 8, 2010 7:01 PM
Posted on July 8, 2010 19:01