Fairness and Pensions
Everyone keeps banging on about fairness these days - so I thought I'd propose an idea of my own on pensions.
As anyone with an ounce of common sense knows - final salary pensions schemes are a racket - designed to favour the better off groups of workers in the public sector.
The more you earn in a final salary pension scheme - the bigger the racket - because you get much more out than you pay in - and the mugs who pay the bill are your lower paid colleagues and the taxpayer.
So my idea is this - take all of the money spent on employers' pensions contributions in the public sector - and use it to increase the basic state pension for everyone.
At a stroke you would give a huge boost to the lower paid - and those who rely on only the state pension in retirement.
Instead of having to get by on £100 a week - people would get maybe two or three times that amount - maybe even more.
Who knows what the final figure might be - if the giant sum of public money spent on employers' pensions contributions - were to be used in a different way?
Not only that it would also end the divide between workers in the private and public sectors - with public money being used to benefit everyone's pension - not just those in one sector of the economy.
Highly paid workers would lose out - relatively speaking - no longer would managers on big final salaries get huge annual pensions - and enormous tax free lump sums.
Instead, they'd just be like everyone else - except still a lot better paid of course.
And in a position to use their much higher salaries to look after themselves - of course - while remaining entitiled to a much improved state pension when they finally retired.
But they wouldn't win twice over - first with their higher salaries and then with their much better pension arrangements.
The public sector workforce could keep its 'employee pension contributions' - to save or spend as they like - and the lower paid would be much better off - generally speaking.
The trade unions and the Labour party go on defending the present system - because they are the voices of the establishment - the champions of vested interests.
Which explains why they have nothing to contribute to the debate - except saying NO.
