"UK Council Pension Funding improves by £37 Billion in one year!" TPA

For some reason or other the Tax Evader's Alliance (which is also known as the Tax Payers Alliance/ TPA) did not use this post's title for their "report" published yesterday about Council Pensions (the LGPS - local government pension scheme) Funding. Instead they continued with their selective scaremongering about so called "New Research" and a "£54 billion "black hole".

The truth of the matter is that funding of Council pensions has improved by a colossal £37 Billion in just over a year. You would have thought that this would be a cause of celebration if you were genuinely concerned with tax payers exposure to pension liability?

Of course the the way that all funded pension funds assets and liabilities (private and public) is calculated is barmy. But that is another story. The fact that they don't appear to know or care shows them up to be the extreme right wing "nasty party" Tory front that they pretend not to be.

So desperate are they to discredit the pensions of cleaners, lollypop ladies and town hall clerks that they compared (the totally unfunded) Police Officer pension contribution rates with the LGPS. What rubbish? The schemes are chalk and cheese. Council pensioners would love to retire with a full pension after 30 years service and many would pay more if they could do so. Maybe they should have titled their report "TPA want all Council workers to retire at 50"!

The real nonsense about the Tax Evaders think tank 4 thickos is that they say nothing at all about the real scandal in British taxation. The individual and corporate tax cheats who cost the UK £70 billion a year (every year - repeat £70 Billion).

Maybe because some TPA directors don't pay any UK tax and some of their funders are serial tax evaders while others simply want to privatise the LGPS so they can rip it off?

Why you should join your company pension scheme NOW! (it's use it or lose it)

It's a no brainer actually (apologies to Homer Simpson whose scan in on right does show he has a brain although it is very small and rarely used e.g tax payers alliance supporter). There are millions and millions of workers in the UK who have access to a pension provided by their employer but they have not joined the scheme.

Sometimes it is because the scheme is pretty rubbish and that there are no real incentives given by the employer to encourage their staff to join. Yet often this is not the case and workers are losing vast amounts of money each year by not joining.

The 25% apparently eligible to join the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) who haven't are losing at least 14% of their wages each year. They also even pay more income tax and national insurance.

However, the real people at risk from not joining their scheme NOW are in defined contribution (aka Group stakeholder or personal pensions) company schemes whose employers pay reasonable contributions if the members also pay something into it. Many of scheme are pretty good. Not as good as say the LGPS but nothing to turn your nose up upon. Decent employers know that any decent pension will cost a lot of money and they have to play their part in providing funding.

The risk ironically to these "decent" schemes is the introduction of pension autro enrolement next year. Enrolement is a "good" thing and will mean that nearly all workers in the UK for the first time will be automatically put into a pension scheme.  What is worrying some employers is that this may mean that the total bill for pensions will rise. If auto enrolling works (and there is some doubt) then instead of 25% of the workforce being in the company pension scheme this may rise to say 50% or more. Potentially doubling the pension payroll.

What many people fear is that some companies (including ones that use to provide non contributory final salary schemes free to all their employees in a more enlightened age) are planning to either slash and burn existing contribution rates or introduce 2nd tier pensions for employees who have not joined the existing scheme. We need to oppose all attempts to reduce contributions. The more in the scheme the more difficult it will be to cut it.

This is a call to arms to all union reps to "encourage" (we cannot give specific individual financial advice) our members to consider joining their scheme.  If they don't, it may not be around much longer. Use it or lose it.

Tax Payers Alliance take on death of Bin Laden...

"Greedy Public Sector Workers with their Gold Plated Pensions, Kill Prominent Saudi Tax Paying Millionaire"

BBC Picture of USA troops watching President Obama's TV announcement while in Afghanistan.

Hat tip Col Roi.