go on strike if Reform targeted their pensions<\/a>.<\/p>\nAlthough the next election is not due until 2029, Reform are leading in the polls and the warnings from unions give a flavour of the opposition Farage could come up against if he takes power. The party leader said earlier this week that he expects an \u201ceconomic collapse\u201d to force an early election in 2027.<\/p>\n
A defined benefit pension gives retired workers a guaranteed income, usually based on a portion of their wages, for as long as they live.<\/p>\n
This differs from a defined contribution pension, where people pay into a pension pot that is invested, and then take responsibility for making that money last for their later years.<\/p>\n
Tice on Wednesday claimed the liability for defined public sector benefit schemes was \u201cgrowing at somewhere between \u00a330bn and \u00a350bn a year\u201d, insisting it was \u201cnot unreasonable\u201d to \u201csit down with unions\u201d and discuss a different system for new employees.<\/p>\n
The Unison union, which represents 1.3 million workers who provide public services including nurses, paramedics and cleaners in the NHS, teachers, social workers and others said cutting pensions would harm the economy in the long run by making people poorer in retirement.<\/p>\n
General secretary Christina McAnea said: \u201cThe wealthy bosses of Reform UK simply don\u2019t want staff providing essential services to have a decent income when they retire.<\/p>\n
\u201cThreatening to make public sector workers poorer when they\u2019re pensioners will cost the country more in the long run. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s also no way to tackle recruitment problems rife in the NHS, care, schools and other local services.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnyone who thinks they\u2019d be better off under Reform should think again.\u201d<\/p>\n
The British Medical Association (BMA), which represents doctors including those currently striking, said Reform\u2019s plans were \u201cill thought through\u201d and \u201cnot the silver bullet Reform seems to think they are\u201d.<\/p>\n
Dr Vishal Sharma, BMA pensions committee chair, said: \u201cCutting doctors\u2019 hard-earned pensions would be a disaster for recruiting and keeping them working in the NHS, and a loss of doctors is the last thing we need when waiting lists are once again growing. <\/p>\n
\u201cAfter all, pensions are a central part of the total reward package doctors receive for keeping patients safe and well during their long and stressful careers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sharma claimed \u201creal-terms pay cuts\u201d meant the value of doctors\u2019 pensions had continued to fall \u2013 and that Reform\u2019s proposals would also \u201cdo nothing to fix public finances\u201d.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cAs it stands under the defined benefit scheme, pension contributions fund the benefits paid out to retired doctors. And currently, pension contributions for NHS workers exceed what is being paid out \u2013 creating a surplus for the Treasury, which in 2024-25 alone exceeded \u00a36bn. <\/p>\n
\u201cHowever, if the scheme were to change tomorrow to a defined contribution system, it would create a gaping and growing black hole in Government finances, as it would no longer be able to rely on contributions to meet current or future liabilities.\u201d <\/p>\n
The GMB union said Reform\u2019s proposals would also hit bin collectors and school support staff.<\/p>\n
Rachel Harrison, GMB national secretary, said: \u201cFarage\u2019s plan to rip up pension agreements for school support staff, carers, social workers and bin collectors show exactly who he is.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese are the people who keep our country moving.<\/p>\n
\u201cImagine prioritising making their lives worse. He is no friend of working people.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Institute for Government has argued that there is good reason to explore changes to public sector pensions \u2013 but not for the reasons outlined by Tice.<\/p>\n
Senior researcher Ben Paxton said public sector workers should be allowed to choose whether they would like to boost their take home pay in return for a smaller pension. He argues that this could help boost retention in the workforce.<\/p>\n
However, this would require a fresh influx of cash from the Treasury to pay larger salaries upfront, with the savings from smaller pensions coming decades in the future. <\/p>\n
Reform and the Government were asked for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Unions are sounding the alarm over Reform’s plans to cut public sector pensions\u00a0 Reform\u2019s plans to scrap so-called…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":124242,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[114,39786,268,85,46,2662,5898,266,267,69741],"class_list":{"0":"post-124241","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-defined-benefit-pension-plan","10":"tag-finance","11":"tag-il","12":"tag-israel","13":"tag-nhs","14":"tag-pensions","15":"tag-personal-finance","16":"tag-personalfinance","17":"tag-reform-uk"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124241","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124241"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124241\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/124242"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}