{"id":241278,"date":"2025-11-03T12:07:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-03T12:07:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/241278\/"},"modified":"2025-11-03T12:07:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-03T12:07:09","slug":"richard-tice-faces-union-backlash-over-pension-reform","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/241278\/","title":{"rendered":"Richard Tice Faces Union Backlash Over Pension Reform"},"content":{"rendered":"

A trade union boss has hit out at Reform UK <\/a>deputy leader Richard Tice<\/a> after he outlined plans to slash public sector pensions.<\/p>\n

Tice speculated on how long the government can go on offering so-called \u201cdefined benefit pensions\u201d to state workers as the party looks to slash public spending if it wins the next election.<\/p>\n

Those pensions provide a guaranteed level of income, based on their final salary, to retired public sector employees after they stop working.<\/p>\n

The terms tend to be more generous than most modern-day private sector pensions, which are based on how much a worker pays into them during their career.<\/p>\n

Speaking to Politico<\/a>, Tice said: \u201cHow long can we carry on offering defined benefit pensions to all public sector workers?<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is a much, much bigger issue that is not properly discussed in Westminster, in the media and so on. All [these issues], they\u2019re all related. They\u2019re all important, and they all fit into a jigsaw.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked what might replace defined benefit pensions for public sector workers, Tice replied: \u201cThat\u2019s where patience is a virtue. These are such big issues \u2014 you don\u2019t answer them in a day, a week, frankly, or a month.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Dave Penman,<\/a> general secretary of the FDA union which represents senior civil servants, condemned Tice.<\/p>\n

He told HuffPost UK that scrapping defined benefit pensions will make it even harder to attract and retain public sector workers. <\/p>\n

Penman said: \u201cThe public sector already has a pay crisis. There are hundreds of thousands of vacancies in the NHS and care sectors and a retention crisis in teaching.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the civil service \u2013 which is the lowest payer in the public sector \u2013 it can\u2019t compete to attract and retain the key skills it needs for the future.<\/p>\n

\u201cEnding defined benefit schemes will only make this worse, and at a time when the costs of these schemes is already coming down as a result of the reforms introduced a decade ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are also no quick fixes when it comes to pensions, with financial commitments already locked in for millions of public sector workers.
Any government needs to set out a vision for the public services it wants to deliver, and crucially, a plan for how to get there. <\/p>\n

\u201cReforming public services takes investment in people, skills and technology. A race to the bottom on pensions will not solve the crisis we face in our public services \u2013 instead, it will only make them worse.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tice\u2019s comments came as Reform leader Nigel Farage <\/a>was accused of planning a return to austerity<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Farage will make a major speech on Monday in which he will say public spending must come down if a Reform government is to make good on its previous pledge to cut taxes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A trade union boss has hit out at Reform UK deputy leader Richard Tice after he outlined plans…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":241279,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[84,101634,4176,4178,4174,4175,89127,46247,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-241278","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-dave-penman","10":"tag-finance","11":"tag-pensions","12":"tag-personal-finance","13":"tag-personalfinance","14":"tag-public-sector-pay","15":"tag-richard-tice","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom","18":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=241278"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241278\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/241279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=241278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=241278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=241278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}