North East Herts MP Oliver Heald met teachers’ pensions campaigners at the House of Commons recently. This was a TUC lobby of Parliament. The campaigners were (left to right as shown in the attached photograph) Nye Hathway, Michelle Kenny-Moore, Oliver Heald and Eileen Kelly.
The teachers pointed out that the saving made by introducing a later retirement age, higher staff contributions and a career average pension for the future would “just go to pay off the deficit.” They pointed out that changes made in 2007 would mean higher contributions anyway if there was evidence of people living longer.
Commenting Oliver said:
“We are lucky to have such good dedicated teachers in North East Herts and I understand the concern felt about changes to public sector pensions. I was pleased to meet my constituents and have a good discussion. I will raise their concerns with the Minister. It is important that the negotiations take account of the 2007 agreement.
However, we cannot ignore the fact that we are all living much longer than before and this has increased since the negotiations in 2007. Britain is not in a good financial situation. Lord Hutton looked at the position and concluded that public sector pension contributions and pension age need to go up and that the schemes need to be “career average” for the future. This is so that the schemes can be sustained. Public sector pension schemes will still be much better than many in the private sector.”