Housing association pensions survey 2017

UNISON is carrying out mapping work on what is happening with housing association staff pension arrangements and their relationship with the Local Government Pension Scheme. 

Please do all you can to encourage responses to this survey.

Thanks

Gavin Edwards

UNISON National Officer

Community and Voluntary Service Group

Housing Associations    Send to a friend   |    View in a browser UNISON Community Service Group 1st August 2017 Housing association pensions: UNISON survey HERE Dear Housing Association UNISON Activist, UNISON wants to get an up to date picture of pensions in the housing association sector. To achieve this, it would be very helpful if you could complete this survey: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/JG8MMNY This important information will inform our bargaining and campaigning work in the sector. Best Wishes, Gavin Edwards UNISON National Officer for Community

The “Worse” Big Pension Schemes in UK

FairPensions have published their latest survey (league table) on responsible investment for the top 30 British pension schemes. These schemes have nearly 5 million members and an estimated £351 billion of asserts.

The performance of the bottom 10 appears to be pretty awful. Check out the FairPensions website which “names and shames”.

As a UNISON pension activist I am particularly concerned that the Transport for London (TFL )scheme is apparently joint 19th out of 30 while the E.ON electricity scheme is 25th!

It is noticeable that the top schemes are usually signatories to the UNPRI while from 11th-30th they are all non-signatories.

This is all serious stuff since we need to make sure that all our pension schemes are run in a responsible and transparent manner.

Bank pension schemes (now mainly owned by the government) have also performed relatively badly. No great surprise there I suppose.

It is simply wrong that the bottom 5 schemes did not participate in the survey (see below). FairPensions is an established player in the governance field who should have been treated with respect. The question will be asked rightly or wrongly - what have these pension schemes got to hide (apart from poor governance)?

Coal Pension Trustees Pension Schemes
IBM Pension Scheme
Unilever UK Pension Fund
BAe Systems Pension Scheme
Lloyds TSB Group plc Group Pension Scheme

UNISON Community & Voluntary Sector Pension Survey

UNISON's Pensions Unit is carrying out a short on-line survey (click on link) on pension provision currently being offered to our community and voluntary sector (CVS) members.

This is part of UNISON’s ongoing campaign to try to ensure good quality pension provision for members.

So if you are a UNISON member in this sector then give it a go. It only takes a few minutes.

If you are unsure about what pension scheme is offered you may have to talk to your scheme administrators. They are usually very helpful.

Since a company pension (if offered) is an important part of your pay you should have some idea of what is on offer.

(BTW - Here is a dig I had last year at some organisations who have pulled out of Final Salary schemes).