The great pensions robbery


THE PENSION rights of the majority of the British workforce are under
attack.
Unless you’re a judge, an MP or a fat cat chief executive of a FTSE 100
company then the chances are that you’ve either had your pension rights cut or
are facing an attack on those entitlements.
This feature is based on the Socialist Party’s new pensions pamphlet.

For years, private-sector companies have been ripping off their workforce
and eroding their pension entitlements. By ending the final salary pension
schemes and taking contributions holidays, the bosses have saved themselves
over £20 billion since 1987 in reduced contributions and, at the same time,
increased their company profits by over £4 billion, according to the TUC.

The bosses have done this to boost their profits and ensure their declining
capitalist system increases its profitability overall.

Now the government plans to get in on the act. By increasing the retirement
age, ending final salary schemes in some sectors and increasing employee
contributions the government hopes it can cut the cost of pensions in the
public sector by 15%-20%. This is estimated to amount to at least £100
billion.

Millions of public-sector workers are facing daylight robbery from their
pensions by this government. Local government workers will be affected from as
early as April 2005.

For all workers, pensions are in effect deferred or unclaimed wages. Trade
unions have generally always negotiated on pensions entitlement as part of the
overall pay package, so any attempt to change them effectively amount to a pay
cut.

Chancellor Gordon Brown claims that workers have to take a pay cut because
there is not enough money in the Treasury to pay for the private sector’s
pension crisis or to pay the government’s own commitments as an employer.

Brown conveniently forgets the tens of billions that have been handed out
in cuts in corporation tax and other handouts to big business in recent years.
And, he conveniently ignores the ‘blank cheque’ he says he is prepared to
write to cover the invasion and occupation of Iraq – which is now projected to
cost over £7 billion.

We are told to take a pay cut while the government allows the rich to get
even wealthier. Blair and Brown still refuse to raise the level of income tax
on the super-rich who are laughing all the way to the bank.

Gordon Brown is facing a public-spending black hole because of this obscene
generosity to the wealthy and big business. In order to balance his books he
is desperate to cut as much public spending as possible and wants to follow
the road trodden by private employers in effectively cutting workers’ pay by
slashing their pensions.