Coventry City Council 'face £320m pensions black hole'

Coventry City Council has a “ticking time bomb” pensions deficit blackhole of £320million, according to a new survey published today.



But councils and trade unions have accused its authors – the Taxpayers Alliance – of misleading the public.

The campaign group lists 101 UK local authority pension funds, and claims assets are dwarfed by liabilities to give a combined deficit of £54billion – which “taxpayers are ultimately laible for”.

It estimates Coventry City Council’s pensions deficit in 2010-11 equated to over £1,000 for each man, woman and child in the city – and the national total is the equivalent of £1 in every £5 of Council Tax.

But councils and unions state such claims are false, and point out the majority of council funding comes from government.

Unison estimates the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) costs the taxpayer just 5p in every £1 paid in Council Tax, and the scheme is sustainable.

The report states Warwickshire County Council is facing a pensions deficit of £236million.

The survey follows two national public sector strike days last year over government plans to make millions of workers pay more into their pension pots to get less out in retirement – with the pension age also eventually rising to aged 68. More teachers’ strikes are being planned.

Trade unions representing council workers – who have been forced to accept years of pay freezes and heavy job losses – say the scheme has been shown to be sustainable in the long-run.

The report itself concedes the total deficit had already come down from £91 billion in 2009-10 – and the government has accepted controversial pensions reform proposals included Labour peer Lord Hutton’s key report.

But Matthew Sinclair, director of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “The deficit in the Local Government Pension Scheme remains a ticking time bomb that’s being left for future generations of taxpayers to deal with.

“With an ageing population and a crisis in the public finances, generous final salary schemes like the LGPS are inflexible and too expensive, and need urgent reform.”

Coventry City Council leader John Mutton has accused Tory ministers including cabinet office minister Francis Maude of disproportionately attacking public sector workers to pay off a national deficit created by a private sector banking collapse.

He argues a collapse in pensions for private sector workers should not justify a “race to the bottom” – and attacks on agreed pay and conditions.

Coventry City Council said it is part of the West Midlands Local Government Pension Scheme.

A spokesman said: “The existing deficit is, in part, due to the performance of the fund’s assets during the recent global economic downturn.

“However, these are financial liabilities that will fall over a long period. A long term view on how the position will be recovered needs to be taken. But this does not represent an immediate cost pressure for the city council or the tax payer.

“We anticipate that a combination of increased contribution rates and some of the other pension reforms currently being considered by government – such as increasing the retirement age – will recover the deficit position over the longer term.”

Taxpayers Alliance seem to me to be a bunch of purely politically motivated morons (sorry, can't find a better word); they're very much on a par with Sarah Palin's mob. Always moaning about paying too much tax, ignoring the fact that you don't get something for nothing. One where I live is an ex-headmaster, on a no doubt very generous pension: he is the most vociferous in demanding that public sector workers - especially teachers - should have reduced pensions, reduced pay, and higher pension contributions. I responded to one of his rants to the local paper with "will you be first in the queue to have your pension cut then?" and guess what? Deafening silence from him.

These people really get up my nose! ; They're all right Jack, now let's pull up the drawbridge. Too many people of similar mind in this country nowadays!

Coventry facing more public sector pension strikes

CIVIL servants, lecturers and NHS staff in Coventry and Warwickshire will join a national strike over public sector pensions on Thursday.
Get Bupa from 98p per day

Action is set to take place at Coventry University, colleges in Coventry and Warwickshire, job centres, customs and revenue offices and courts.

Andrew Lloyd, of the Public and Commercial Services Union, expects Coventry’s crown and magistrates courts to close along with the city’s Customs and Revenue offices, job centres and driving test centres.

After the 24-hour strike, PCS members will start a work-to-rule and overtime ban which is expected to last several weeks.

Action by lecturers who belong to the University and College Union is expected to take place at Coventry University, Henley College, City College Coventry and Warwickshire College along with North Warwickshire & Hinckley College.

But university and college bosses say they will open as normal and disruption to students will be kept to a minimum.

There will be no action at Warwick University.

Members of the Unite union who work in the NHS in Coventry and Warwickshire are also being asked to go on strike.

They include health visitors, paramedics and pharmacists.

Unite bosses say pension contributions for many of their members are going up by £30 a month and may have to work until they are 68.

Activists will picket workplaces in Coventry and Warwickshire before joining a rally in Birmingham.

The strike is the latest in a series of days of actions in protest at changes to pensions.

Union members are angry that contributions are going up, payouts are doing down and retirements are going up.

But government ministers say the changes have to happen because pensions are unaffordable as well as being much better deals than many private sector employees get.

PCS members are also angry about pay and job cuts.

A cap of one per cent on pay rises has followed several years of pay freezes for many members at a time of rising food and fuel prices.

Midlands regional secretary of the Public and Commercial Services Union Andrew Lloyd said: “Members remain concerns about the attacks on their pensions, pay and jobs.

“Rather than anger dissipating the anger is getting stronger.

“The first higher contributions to pension schemes were taken at the end of April.

“We are paying more, working longer and getting less.”

The same unions rolled-over and played dead when the Labour government announced the phasing-out of Pension Credit and other benefits for the over-60s.

H'mm, but Pension Credit wasn't really in the same league, was it? And what about when mortgage payment Income Tax Relief was stopped? Numerous examples of how governments of all colours rip us off, methinks.

H'mm, but Pension Credit wasn't really in the same league, was it?

No, it was much more important as the poorest fifth of the population over 60, including many low paid ex-manual workers in the public sector, relied on it for their survival. It's abolition, combined with the huge increase in unemployment, the abolition of long-term sickness benefits and women's pensions, is a virtual death sentence for many older people.