FAIR PENSIONS FOR ALL
A CRISIS OF FAIRNESS
There is an economic crisis in the UK, but it was not caused by excessive
public spending or the ‘gold-plated’ pensions and pay of public sector workers.
It was caused by a recession triggered by the banking collapse of 2007.
Now there is another crisis: a crisis of fairness in which those who caused the economic mess
are forcing everyone else in society to pay for it.
It is clear whose side Cameron’s cabinet of millionaires is on.
Trade unions represent people in the public, private and voluntary sectors.
Our members will often experience each through their working lives – as will
their partners, friends and family.
Good occupational pension schemes are important wherever you work.
Most pensioners are reliant on the basic state pension for the majority of their
income in retirement, but it pays below the government’s own poverty line.
Disgracefully today there are 2.5 million pensioners living in poverty in the UK.
Only one in three private sector workers is now a member of an employer-sponsored
pension scheme, public sector pensions are under threat, and the state pension
is now worth just 15% of average male earnings.
On the other hand a quarter of all tax relief on pensions, amounting to more
than £10bn annually, goes to the richest 1% in the country.
We hear about
gold-plated public sector pensions, yet the real gilded pensions are to be found
in the boardrooms of private companies that have abandoned provision for
their workforces.
There is a crisis of pensions in the UK but it’s not that we’re living too long or
that pensions are unaffordable; it’s a crisis of fairness.
In retirement, as in working life, we are highly unequal. UK pensioner poverty is among the worst in Europe –
only Cyprus, Latvia and Estonia abandon their pensioners to a greater degree.
Action is needed to secure decent state pensions as the foundation for pensioner
income and decent employer-sponsored pension provision for all workers in all
employment sectors.
Please join our campaign for ‘Fair pensions for all’.
Introduction: a crisis of fairness
Mark Serwotka
PCS General Secretary
Christine Blower
NUT General Secretary
Dot Gibson
National Pensioners Convention
Sally Hunt
UCU General Secretary
