Firefighters have warned they could go on strike if Nigel Farage’s Reform UK wins power and tries to cut “gold-plated” public sector pensions.
Richard Tice, Reform’s deputy leader, is set to confirm on Wednesday that the party would axe defined benefit pension schemes for public sector workers, arguing they are too expensive for the state and therefore threaten the health of the economy.
But the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) warned that firefighters would “fiercely resist” any attempts to cut any retirement packages that they have already paid into.
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A defined benefit pension gives retired workers a guaranteed income, usually based on a portion of their wages, for as long as they live.
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.
The i Paper understands that threatened measures against the plans include strikes and other industrial action if Farage – whose party has led opinion polls for months and could win the next election – were to lead government cuts to firefighters’ pensions.
Reform ‘would cut pensions for nurses and teachers’, says TUC
The Trades Union Congress (TUC) said Reform’s plans would mean cutting the pensions of nurses and teachers among other public servants.
FBU general secretary Steve Wright accused Reform of being a “party led by millionaires”.
He added: “Firefighters will be shocked that the multi-millionaire deputy leader of Reform UK wants to raid the pensions of firefighters and other public sector workers.
“Firefighters put their lives and their health on the line day in and day out to protect the public. Farage and Tice are threatening firefighters’ hard-earned pensions.
“The FBU will fiercely resist any attempt to cut the pensions that firefighters have already paid into.”
He added: “Firefighters’ pensions have been systematically attacked by various governments over the years, and Reform UK, while professing to be different, are clearly demonstrating that they are no different at all from those who have previously attacked firefighters’ pension.
“In fact they intend to go further than previous governments ever did by getting rid of defined benefit pensions for public sector workers.
“In the forthcoming Budget, Chancellor Rachel Reeves must urgently introduce a wealth tax to properly fund public services, pensions and increase pay for all workers.”
TUC general secretary Paul Nowak added: “Once again Nigel Farage has shown his true colours. It’s laughable that he claims to be on the side of working people.
“This is the man who wants to cut the pensions of nurses, teachers and other hardworking public servants, deliver more austerity for our hard-pressed public services, and keep workers on zero-hours contracts.”
Dave Penman, general secretary of the FDA Union that represents civil servants said Reform’s plans would make it harder for the government to tempt talented people away from the private sector
He said: “The public sector already has a pay crisis with tens of thousands of unfilled posts in health, care and teaching. In the civil service -which is the lowest payer in the public sector- it struggles to attract the skills from the private sector that Reform say they are keen to attract.
“Ending defined benefit schemes, which were radically reformed a decade ago to bring costs down, will only make this worse and key public service roles less attractive.
“There are also no quick fixes when it comes to pensions, with financial commitments already locked in for millions of public sector workers. So this is no silver bullet, it’s an ideological attack on public servants.
“Any government that wants to improve public services needs to invest in its people, skills and technology. A race to the bottom on pensions will do nothing to deliver this.”
‘We cannot allow our country to go bankrupt’
Tice, who will unveil his plans in a speech on financial deregulation at Bloomberg’s offices in the City of London on Wednesday, suggested that defined benefit pensions would be “on the table because we cannot allow our country to go bankrupt”.
He told Times Radio: “The liability of the unfunded pension schemes in the public sector is so enormous, no one actually knows how big it is.
“The OBR [Office for Budget Responsibility] says it’s about £1.5trn, but it could be as high as two and a half. It’s heading north at a colossal rate every single year.
“It’s off balance sheets. So no one sort of sees it, but we all know it’s a major, major problem, and we’ve got to deal with it. And that requires [the] political courage that we have.”
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