At yesterday’s meeting of the UNISON NEC we received a report of developments in relation to the Local Government Pension Scheme.
The NEC was advised that consultation on extending transitional protection of the “Rule of 85” to remove the “tapering” for those current scheme members who will be 60 by 2020 had now closed and the outcome was awaited. A number of branches and employer had supported UNISON’s position whilst a large number of employers had not.
In spite of an agreement between the trade unions and the employers not to have formal “cost sharing” arrangements, the Government have written this into the new LGPS Regulations and discussions have therefore begun. The Government want a cap upon employers’ contributions so that if life expectancy increases there would have to be further increases in employees’ pension contributions in future. We were told that the unions are resisting this.
Discussions are also continuing about the “third tier” of ill health retirement in the new scheme.
Interestingly there is a cohort study initiated I think by UCL of people born in the early 50's to look at health and life expectancy! This -coupled with actuarial projections from Corus' - indicate that overall life expectancy will not increase within the UK population.Of course, the rather positive impact of migration to and from the UK has not been taken into account -but then, have global population dynamics been factored in anywhere in actuarial predictions? kat
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