UNISON Community Seminar/Conference 2023 - Day 1

 

UNISON holds an annual Seminar and Conference for members who work in our Community Service Group (Housing Associations and voluntary sector).  This year it was held in Bournemouth. Unexpectedly I stepped in to chair a workshop on pensions due to illness.  Once again I will use my twitter feed to report on the day. 

At @unisontheunion @UNISONCommVol annual conference in sunny Bournemouth. Started 9am with meeting of Service Group Executive. Now #HousingAssociation sector meeting addressed by @CityHallLabour @Semakaleng

Our speaker @Semakaleng is Chair of @LondonAssembly #Housing committee & @CityHallLabour spokesperson. I asked for appropriate support for our campaigns against pay cuts, breaking #pension promises & trade union victimisation. Sem is willing to listen & work with us

After @Semakaleng we had a roundtable feedback from Housing Associations @UNISONCommVol members from all over the UK. Common themes were Cost of Living, pay cuts (below inflation offers), breaking #pension promises, bullying, discrimination, stress, workload but some positives. I made a suggestion about a new campaign to improve Housing Association Governance and accountability.

After lunch the @UNISONCommVol annual seminar kicks off with welcome from our Chair Malcolm Gray (long lost cousin) & speech/Q &A from @unisontheunion regional secretary Clare Williams. The actual #unisoncomm23 conference starts tomorrow

Next Nye Cominetti from @resfoundation on report "who cares" "exp of social care workers & the enforcement of employment rights in sector" clearly care workers are being unlawfully under paid by not properly inc travel time. #ucommunity23 @UNISONCommVol @GavinEdwards77

Final presentation by @organiserjo the @unisonglr regional secretary on "organising & recruitment strategy development project". We need to build on our strengths. While we need to acknowledge our weakness we should not beat ourselves up. Need to learn & evaluate.

After break I will be leading a #ucommunity23 workshop on "Find out what is happening to your pension & how to organise to improve it". @unisontheunion pension guru, Glyn Jenkins is not well. 4.20pm at Meyrick suite. Finish 5.20pm. All welcome but register beforehand at conference desk

Chatting to delegates outside #UCommunity23 with @DeniseT25475880. Both of us are standing for
@UNISONCommVol NEC seats. Many thanks for the support we have received so far from so many branches. Ballot papers drop 17/4/23. Any delegates who want to speak to us are very welcome

After a meeting of all London delegates there was a Conference social. Afterwards we went for a #UCommunity23 @unisonglr delegation meal with great comrades @JoeOgundemuren
@MarcelaBenede10 @CllrLolaOyewusi @rachangeli @TLJM44 @jcreed551

UNISON urges caution over new pension scheme (collective defined contribution)

 

UNISON is 100% right to be careful about this new "CDC" (Collective Defined Contribution Scheme) however, it should not be seen as a replacement for decent existing pension schemes but a realistic option for the so many workers in the UK, who have rotten, inadequate and completely unsecure pension provision. 

"Government’s new collective defined contribution pension scheme could help some public service workers, but shouldn’t erode the pensions of others.

UNISON is urging caution after this week’s announcement by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) that it is launching a new UK pension model.

The UK government seeks to introduce collective defined contribution schemes as an alternative to the UK’s current two primary pension scheme models – defined contribution and defined benefit.

The new scheme is a result of the Pensions Schemes Act that was passed in 2021.

UNISON sees defined benefit schemes as vital in providing decent pensions for many public service workers. However, millions of public service workers – including UNISON members – are not eligible to join such schemes and are dependent on defined contributions schemes instead.

The union has negotiated with employers in these sectors and has successfully brought about a number of relatively high-quality defined contributions schemes for members in recent years.

UNISON head of pensions Glyn Jenkins said that caution was needed when employers consider any changes to existing pension arrangements. “These new pension arrangements must not erode current provision,” he commented.

“UNISON supports improving member outcomes through the introduction of collective defined contribution for members in defined contribution schemes, but the new schemes should not be used to replace viable defined benefit schemes.”

Mr Jenkins pointed out that, on the basis of the union’s experience, many defined contribution schemes will not provide an adequate income for their members.

This is for a number of reasons, including, “woefully inadequate levels of contributions – especially from the employers – and charges on investments.”

He continued: “Collective defined contribution schemes should improve the position for members in defined contributions schemes. Even though such schemes do not guarantee benefit levels, they do set a target benefit level that may be reached.”

Posted on
4 August 2022

A gentler way to talk about pensions

Hat tip Henry Tapper and I totally agree with Henry (on this matter)

"Yesterday afternoon I had a chat with Glyn Jenkins. Most of my conversations with Glyn over the years have been in the bar of Unison’s Marylebone’s offices. Glyn is old school and that means he prioritises people.

This chat was different, we were talking with a small group of highly sophisticated pension professionals about how to talk about pensions. We were meeting on Zoom and it was part of a virtual conference that would otherwise have happened in a posh hotel in Surrey,

It didn’t make any difference to Glyn, we saw him smiling benignly out at us from what he told us was the least cluttered part of his living room. Rather than daunting us with the extent of his library, the background Glyn showed us looked like the back room of Charles Dickens’ Old Curiosity Shop!

I suspect that Glyn’s capacity to adopt new technology but to remain true to himself marks him out at a time when we are all marvelling at our new found tech-saviness. For Glyn, none of the technology mattered at all.

---

So what did Glyn talk about?

Glyn talked about how people come to an understanding of the pension they get and how they can make best use of it. He talked about the life insurance that NHS staff were getting and the good it can do them right now. He talked about things that he thought his members should know about.

He explained things in a simple way, as he used to explain to me about the public sector pension transfer club in the rooftop bar of the Old Unison building. To get an idea of how straightforward Glyn’s approach is , here is his Linked in profile

Glyn did not talk about himself!

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A gentler way to talk about pensions

I suppose I found myself gently reproved by Glyn- and I’m sure he didn’t mean to reprove me! It’s just that this man’s kind gentle manner and his huge emotional intelligence worked on those on the call in a way that I couldn’t.

Though many of those in the room are at the forefront of delivering “engaging” communications, we all had to step back and re-connect with the simple values of gentle decency that Glyn presents.

And I find myself learning from the experience, chastened by my hubris and remembering that the people who Glyn speaks to and for , are the public servants on whom all our lives currently depend.

Why can't actuaries make their minds up?

This is an article that I wrote recently for Professional Pensions magazine

"John Gray asks why agreement can’t be made on appropriate discount rates for the LGPS.

Currently I sit on three different open defined benefit pension bodies in different employer and employee roles. While I think that all my past and present scheme actuaries are personally wise and wonderful. I just wish they could agree with each other a little more often.

For example, at the moment those of us who are involved in the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) in England and Wales are gearing up for the triennial valuation of funds this April (April 2017 in Scotland).

Different actuarial companies hold different "house views" on discount rates. The question is why?
Net Discount

The LGPS is collectively one of the biggest funded pension schemes in the world with some five million members and assets of around £192bn. Bizarrely there are currently 101 different administrative authorities who manage the scheme. It is a major investor in the UK and overseas.

Some 25% of active members do not work directly for local councils. Income from its investments subsidises the cost of providing pensions by some £3bn per year. While nearly all funds have historic deficits due to past underfunding, future employer contributions are capped.

Putting aside for the moment the important arguments that the way we calculate pension liabilities (and therefore deficits) is simply bonkers in these days of negative inflation, QE and ridiculously low gilt prices, we need our actuaries to make up their minds about what is the correct Net Discount Rate (NDR) ‎to apply to this national scheme.

The discount rate really matters. It decides future funding requirements and – most important of all to financially hard pressed councils and other LGPS employers - decides what their contributions will need to be.

NDR is the projected growth of the fund above inflation. So if the inflation is assumed to be 2% and growth is 5% the NDR would be 3%. The sting in the tale is that the lower the NDR the more employers will usually be expected to pay.

Range of discount rates
Quite rightly it is our scheme actuaries who make the final decision what the NDR is after consultation with the administrative authorities. However, currently there are a range of net discount rates across the different funds in the LGPS that go from under 2% to 3.5%. Different actuarial companies hold different 'house views' on discount rates. The question is why.

I could just about understand different schemes having different discount rates but for funds that offer the same scheme benefits with the same extremely strong employer covenant this doesn't seem credible.

Two of the four actuarial firms that value the LGPS tend to have lower NDR than the others. If they all used the same  NDR as the Government Actuaries Department, which is 3%, then it has been estimated that the combined LGPS deficits would be cut by nearly a half, a staggering £19bn. This suggests to me that since the NDR drives contributions many employers are already paying far more than they need to.

The NDR is not the only controversial assumption (otherwise known as an educated guess) made by actuaries. There are different assumptions made and argued over around future inflation, pay increases and life expectancy. There is even a debate about whether or not life expectancy is currently declining.

If liabilities and contributions to the LGPS are over stated by some too prudent actuaries then this will lead to further politically motivated attacks and scaremongering upon the LGPS. We cannot allow the LGPS to be destroyed in the same way as happened to defined benefit provision in the private sector.

John Gray is a pension board member at the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. (Personal capacity and hat tip to Glyn Jenkins from UNISON following his recent presentation to the London Pension Forum).

Local Government Pension Scheme is safe and substainable

Check out this response to amongst the daftest report ever by a right wing think tank.

It is more than a shame that organisations such as the Centre for PolicyStudies (CPS) feel they have to temper their reasoned attacks on the financial services industry for ripping off the Local Government Pension scheme (LGPS) with such bizarre sectarian silliness.

The Local Government Pension Scheme unlike all the other public PAYG funds has collectively some £200 billion of assets and face liabilities over a 60 years or more time frame. There is no crisis.

If we were not being cheated by the financial service industry there would be no real affordability issues with the LGPS. If we also did not have such a weird and broken yardstick of measuring LGPS liabilities then nearly all our funds will be in surplus.

Why don't we open the LGPS to all UK workers including the self-employed? Everyone deserves a decent pension and unless you are rich nearly all alternatives to a defined benefit pension scheme just will not deliver.
 
"Dismissing the Centre for Policy Studies report on the local government pensions scheme (LGPS).......,

UNISON head of pensions Glyn Jenkins said:

“UNISON fundamentally disagrees with the conclusions of this report. The LGPS is both safe and sustainable – being funded both by contributions from scheme members, employers and investment income.

“Scheme investments generate a significant portion of the income so the taxpayer is not paying the full increase in employer contributions. The report misses the fundamental point that if the cost of benefits increases, that increase is shared with scheme members.

“Scheme benefits did not improve in April 2014 as the report claims. It was fully costed to be lower in value, and the build up rate is higher now because retirement age has increased.

“It is not that the current LGPS is unsustainable that has caused past service deficits to build up.  Messing around with current benefits will do nothing to reduce the deficits caused by employers paying in too little or taking contribution holidays in the past.

“UNISON takes the issues on costs and governance seriously and has around 200 trained members on fund boards who push for greater transparency on scheme costs.

“This doom and gloom report implies that there will be no recovery in UK investments and that yields will never recover, whereas we know that although there are always ups and downs, the indicators are that markets will recover.

“It is over prudent assumptions on growth that is killing the pensions future for workers all over the UK, and giving rise to the fiction that adequate pensions are unaffordable.”

Urgent, urgent update on LGPS 2014 England and Wales (Council Pension scheme)

This is very important. I will say this only once! If you have been in the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS, Council pensions scheme, superann etc) and for whatever reason you have stopped contributing into the scheme BUT you still work for that employer and can rejoin - then do so before April or else.

do it now, don't delay, don't forget about it, don't put it off. Rejoin the scheme. You already know it makes sense but if you don't rejoin before the new scheme in April you could lose big time (see below).

 From UNISON's National Pension Officer Glyn Jenkins
"The Regulations changing the LGPS will come into force with effect from 1 April 2014 . PLEASE DO WHAT YOU CAN TO MAKE COLLEAGUES AWARE OF THE MESSAGE BELOW AS SOON AS POSSIBLE

1. Below is an important update (that was on the UNISON website News section), covering where we are on the Transitional Regulations that will set out the protections on benefits earned before April

2. Last chance reminder that anyone who has currently opted out of the LGPS MUST rejoin immediately if they want to ensure the earnings link protection on any final salary benefits they have earned up to April 2014 ( there may be some protection for those who opt back in within 5 years of opting out). If the cost of the contributions is the problem then they should be reminded that from April there is an option to pay half their normal contribution rate for half the pension. They should approach their employer pension department and ensure that the forms to rejoin has been returned and received before the end of this month. If they are not actively contributing to the scheme then any benefits they earned before they opted out that fall outside the proposed five year window protection to opt back in, will go up in line with prices (currently Consumer Prices Index) not earnings

3. Anyone thinking of paying Additional Voluntary Contributions to maximise tax free lump sum payment when they retire so they don’t have to exchange so much of their pension for cash at the relatively poor exchange rate of only £12 cash £1 pension should elect to start paying the contributions BEFORE April 2014. If members elect to pay AVC’s after April then when they retire they are likely only to be able to take part of their AVC fund as a cash sum ( currently 25% of the value) and the remainder they will have to buy extra pension at whatever the annuity rates will be in the future from a pension provider like an insurance company. Members ,especially those near retirement , should consider paying AVC’s if they can afford it and approach their employer pensions department for details of the AVC arrangement operated by their employer/LGPS fund. They can as an alternative buy extra pension in the LGPS.

LGPS transitional regulations update

The government regulations covering transitional arrangements for the Local Government Pension Scheme are still delayed, because the government has yet to decide whether councillors should continue to be allowed to join the LGPS, following its consultation last year.

UNISON head of pensions Glyn Jenkins, who sits on the group that is checking the draft regulations, commented: "There are no plans to reduce the protections that have been agreed, which are in the current draft."

As drafted, this would mean the 'rule of 85' protection will go over into LGPS 2014 unchanged from what it is now. So any part of a person's service that is currently covered by the rule of 85 would not be reduced for early payment if she or he decides to retire at 60, unless they have not completed enough service by that time to satisfy the rule.

Those who voluntarily decide to retire between the age of 55 and 60 with full or part protection for the rule of 85, would have an early retirement reduction unless the employer agreed to pay to remove it.

There is still fine tuning to be done about the level of the reduction in such cases.

UNISON believes it has succeeded in arguing that the reduction will only count back from age 60, not 65, but this will be confirmed when the regulations are laid.

Also as drafted, the current definition of final pay and the protections on pay will remain the same for all service up to April 2014. The underpinning protection for those who were within 10 years of their normal retirement age at April 2012 is also in the current draft.

"UNISON is pushing for the transitional regulations as drafted to be laid as soon as possible, to remove uncertainty," said Mr Jenkins.

"We are concerned that, because of the delay in bringing the transitional regulations into law, some members are considering leaving the scheme or even resigning their jobs - under the false impression that the protections will not be implemented and the equally false impression that leaving the scheme would somehow protect their past service rights in the LGPS.

"In fact, all those who want the final earnings protection on their LGPS service to April 2014, must make sure they are contributing to the LGPS when the regulations change in April."

The Scottish LGPS and Northern Ireland LGPS are separate.

UNISON Local Government Pension Scheme Seminar 2013

Last week I chaired this well attended national seminar at the UNISON Centre in London on the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS). There were about 90 UNISON LGPS activists from all over the UK.

The stated aim of the day was to explore the outcomes of the implementation of the Hutton Review and understand the huge developments that have since taken place.

First speaker was UNISON National Secretary and LGPS Shadow Board member, Jon Richards. Jon gave a sober update on the ongoing and often tortuous negotiations between the Board and its various components - the Unions, the Local Government Association, the DCLG  and the Treasury on the future costing and governance of the LGPS.

He has discovered that some parties are now suggesting that they should not be subject to past agreements since they did not understand at the time what these original agreements meant! Jon warned us that we must not just rely on what national officers can deliver but must organise and argue locally for change and must act and think as equals in all these negotiations.We have a job of work to do.

Next was UNISON Pension officer, Glyn Jenkins who gave the first of a 2 part presentation on the technical negotiations on future benefits for LGPS 2014.

National Capital Stewardship officer (and seminar lead) Colin Meech gave a call to arms for everyone present to organise and plan for us to have 50/50 member representation on all 89 England and Wales LGPS pension boards. We all need to step up to the challenge ahead of us.

Financial Academic, Dr Chris Seir (see picture left speaking - a former Police officer, past investment adviser but still a martial arts expert) gave a convincing insider argument that our pension funds are being ripped off by excess and unnecessary fees and charges.

Karen Thrumble from Statestreet didn't quite agree with everything that Chris had said. She did have concerns about the advice of some LGPS investment advisers on certain expensive products and while did not think there was sufficient research to say that "big is always best" in the size of LGPS funds, she did think that bigger funds tended to produce better returns since they could invest more cheaply in-house and be less complex.

UNISON South West region organiser and an employee nominated trustee on our staff Pension scheme, Jon Dunn, reminded us that socially responsible investment (SRI) should be at the heart of everything we do as pension trustees. The TUC and a number of major unions including UNISON had recently set up "Trade Union Share Owners" (TUSO) on voting shares at company AGM's and engagement to try and make sure this happens with our workers capital.

Next was Jackie Hamer, who is a UNISON lay activist and is a member nominated rep on the Environment Agency pension fund which is part of the LGPS family. The governance and SRI arrangements in her almost fully funded open Defined Benefit scheme are an exemplifier with 50/50 employer/employee representation.

Catherine Howarth from the pension watchdog, ShareAction (specialist subject upsetting Pension fund administrators and Company Chairs at their shareholder AGMs) gave a great example of the potential power of Pension trustees and beneficiaries by showing how their campaign had helped result in an increase of top FTSE companies paying a Living wage from 2 to 11 to all its UK staff and subcontractors.

Final speaker was Glyn Jenkins again who gave a typical "belt and braces" overview of what LGPS 2014 technical benefit changes will mean to our members. All of us can now expect lots and lots of case work from LGPS members with long service who have reached the magic age of 55.

While we are not allowed to give financial advice I think you need to ask members if they retire early at that age (by choice and not due to ill health or redundancy which have very different consequences) with all the penalties, do they really want to risk dying in poverty?

In my closing comments I thanked the organisers and speakers for a great seminar. I had been told by one representative during the tea break that this had been the best event laid on by UNISON that he had ever attended! I repeated Jon Richards earlier call for action, that it is up to all of us, lay activists and organisers, at every level to act and defend the long term interests of our pensions.

UNISON Pension Guru Glyn Jenkins on "smoothing" and stop "destroying" schemes

This 5 minute video "head to head" by Professional Pensions sees UNISON Head of Pensions, Glyn Jenkins, debate the recently announced Government enquiry into "smoothing" with PWC partner Jeremy Way.

Most defined benefit schemes value the present and future cost of pensions by reference to the return of government loans called gilts. Due to current abnormal market conditions these gilt returns are at a 200 year low. This means that schemes appear to have huge and unstable deficits. The enquiry is looking into arguments that instead of valuing these liabilities according to gilts they should be valued in another more relevant way.

For example by reference to the actual historic and expected return of the assets that the schemes actually invest in, not a "make believe" world that they only invest in gilts. Most pensions schemes invest in other assets such as equities  (stock and shares) not just gilts and it is reasonable to expect a much better long term return from such assets than gilts.

If they did this then the size of so called current "deficits" in many DB schemes would be slashed.

Glyn believes it would make sense to consider all scheme assets not just gilts and that the current unrealistic and inflexible "herd" or "lemmings" approach is destroying schemes. Which is actually the view of the current Pensions Minster Steve Webb.

I'm not quite sure what the conclusion of the PWC "yes but no but" argument actually is, but check it out in the the video for yourself. I suppose 5 minutes is far too short for a definitive debate but it concentrates the mind.

Pensions - What Next for Pensions in the Voluntary Sector and Housing Associations?

After the opening session of the 2012 UNISON Community Seminar we split into 4 workshops :- Facility time; Health and Safety; Challenging Racism in the Workplace (based on a new branch toolkit) and Pensions. I went to the Pensions workshop and helped out UNISON Pension guru Glyn Jenkins (left) as a SGE member.

The workshop was (understandably) dominated by the future of the Local Government Pension and the NHS pension scheme. Glyn brought the workshop up to date on the proposed changes. Even though negotiations are still ongoing so he was not yet able to give definitive answers to all questions. I collated a survey filled out by members of the workshop. Out of 26 people present, the average age was 45 (3 years younger than the average UNISON member), the average amount of pensionable service was only 15 years, the age they expected to retire was  63 and 4 had no pension whatsoever. One person put down he wanted to retire at 23! Most had been promoted in their first 10 years of service and did not expect to be promoted during the rest of their career. Interestingly Glyn thought on the basis of this survey that most of us would benefit from a CARE (career average pension scheme).

It was a pity that there was not more time to discuss the Social Housing Pension Scheme, auto-enrolling or other urgent pension issues specific to our sector.

UPDATE: Someone has emailed me to ask what happened over the "template" emergency conference motions over the Pension dispute attacking the Service Group Executive (SGE)? They were ruled out of order (they were basically identical and clearly inaccurate) by the elected lay Standing Orders Committee (SOC).  The SOC offered a 30 minute open discussion on the issue. The SOC reported was passed overwhelmingly but delegates voted to reject the offer to have the "discussion" and to support the decision made by their Service Group Executive (I declare an interest).

Ken Livingston supporting NHS pensions at UNISON London Health Service conference

Picture is from last weeks London UNISON Health Training Conference in Congress House. Labour London Mayor Candidate Ken Livingstone (double click picture to bring up detail) was one of the speakers. I missed seeing

Ken speak but the feed back from those who did was very positive. This regional health training conference has grown in size every year. There were a number of other speakers and expert panels. Including a guest from the RCN.

Protecting NHS (and other public sector workers) Pensions was obviously a key issue. UNISON Head of Pensions , Glyn Jenkins gave a detailed presentation on what is at stake. While former Bromley branch secretary turned regional officer, Micky Crouch, gave a humorous and well received talk on the vital importance of recruitment. BTW It was of course good for all of us to see the London Health SGE member, NHS nurse Mike Davey, (see picture bottom right) being his usual bright, cheerful (and awake) self at this event. 

UNISON NDC 2011: Protect our Pensions Fringe

On Tuesday lunch time there was a very well attended fringe on "Protecting our Pensions".  It was chaired by NEC member Steve Warwick, Roz Norman (Health service Group), Glyn Jenkins (UNISON Head of pensions)and Mo Baines (LGPS Pension rep). 
I missed the beginning.

In the Q&A I asked whether or not the true cost of past employer contribution holidays and lower than needed contributions had ever been calculated by the unions? If employers had always paid what they should have paid, what would our schemes look like now? 

I had been to a conference recently were it was asserted by a well known financial figure that £50 billion pounds had been taken (stolen says I ?) from final salary schemes due to past contribution holidays and reductions. Glyn responded by say thing he thought such a figure seemed plausible but he knows that for many years - employers paid far, fair less into schemes than employees.

My argument is of course that if the employers had paid in the traditional 10-12% of earnings into occupational pensions schemes every year for the past 30 years then things would look very different in the pension world than they do now. 

In other words many pension scheme members face now being Robert Maxwelled (aka robbed) due to the past misappropriation (theft?) of contributions?