THAT BHS’s £571 million pension deficit is proving problematical is not surprising (MPs probe collapse of BHS”, The Herald, April 27). Politicians are quick to condemn such private sector firms, conveniently ignore similar public sector deficits – the UK Local Government Scheme alone is around £50 billion in the red and rising, for our children to deal with – as they are “Ponzi” plans with contributions not ring-fenced but used for current expenditure to reduce our taxes.
Coventry’s director of resources estimated last year that one-third of all UK council tax will soon be spent entirely on pensions, and that this is “wholly unaffordable and unsustainable, and almost no-one feels able to say so”.
Such deficits result from our ludicrous final-salary-based obsession, despite it being obvious for more than 20 years that these schemes were unsustainable. Fred Goodwin’s “entitlement” aged 51 to £713,000 per annum for life was merely the top-end of an unstable pyramid (and should have been limited to £27,000 had RBS been treated like any other bankrupt company).
We learn from recent analyses by respected expert Alan Higham and separately by KPMG, that some public sector employees will retire on pensions above their final salaries, by 55 per cent in some cases, when either the old or new basic state pension is included. In net income terms, the difference is even more marked, as pensioners pay no National Insurance, pension contributions or commuting costs.
While Labour encouraged such superannuation incontinence, the Coalition Government lost all the moral authority it had in May 2010 to impose sensible measures in both public and private sectors, by not immediately cancelling the MPs’ platinum-plated defined-benefit pension plan and converting it to a money-purchase defined-contribution plan, as forward-looking private sector firms have done since the early 1990s.
John Birkett,
12 Horseleys Park, St Andrews.
I WAS enjoying Pinstripe’s article (“SNP promises very little but spend, spend, spend”, Herald Business, April 25) until his throwaway comment “is somebody who earns £45,000 rich?”
He needs to remember that the average wage is around £27,000; many hourly-paid workers earn £7.50 an hour ; the state pension is £155 per week. These are figures governments deem acceptable. £45,000 in a year would be simply wonderful for these people and I am certain they would think they were rich.
Perhaps a greater social mix in his life would give him a more balanced view of present day society.
Sue Wade,
5 Lindston Place, Ayr.
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