Public sector pensions: Extra payments to be outlined

Public service employees will soon learn exactly how much extra they are expected in pay in pension contributions from April.

They will be told about the extra contributions, as the government looks to shave £1.2bn off its pension bill next year.
A nurse earning £25,000 is expected to pay an extra £12 a month from April.
The changes to pensions have met with stiff opposition from workers, some of whom have staged industrial action.
Plans It is expected that staff earning less than £15,000 a year will not pay any higher contributions at all.
Those earning between £15,000 and £21,000 (up from the previously suggested limit of £18,000) will pay 0.6 percentage points more from next April.
Those earning more than than £21,000 a year will pay up to 2.4 percentage points more.
For example, civil servants earning well in excess of £150,000 are expected to pay £260 a month more in contributions.
The Treasury confirmed that the government would be announcing further details of its proposed changes to the pension scheme but declined to comment on the figures.

Hamish Meldrum British Medical Association chairman

The government has already said it is going to consult scheme-by-scheme on its planned increase in contributions in stages over the next three financial years.

But a union leader accused the government of "playground games" by making the announcement on April's extra contributions now.
"We entered into the scheme-specific talks on public sector pensions in good faith and we genuinely believe we are making progress, albeit slowly," said Dave Prentis, general secretary of Unison.
"But these talks are being put in jeopardy by the crude and naive tactics of government ministers who do not seem to understand the word negotiate."
'Blatant tax' The government is trying to implement the recommendations of Lord John Hutton, the former Labour pensions minister.
His review of the public sector pension schemes, completed earlier this year, recommended higher contributions and the wholesale conversion of existing schemes from final-salary to career-average structures.
The Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Danny Alexander, has previously outlined plans for further additional contributions in later years, but these are all subject to negotiations with unions.
However, the most recent proposals have prompted an angry response from a doctors' group.
"This is nothing about deficit reduction and the affordability of public sector pensions. This is just a blatant tax on pensions," Hamish Meldrum, the chairman of the British Medical Association, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
"As far as we know, this money is not going back into any pension scheme, it is going to the Treasury.
"This is not the way to negotiate with reasonable people. It is no wonder public sector workers are angry with these knee-jerk announcements that come out of the Treasury."
He said the NHS scheme went through a major reform three years ago, when contributions increased significantly.
'Difficult' negotiations Mr Alexander said the details of April's rising contribution rates would be subject to 12 weeks of consultation, but they ensured that the taxpayer contribution would be kept under control.
However, the union representing senior civil servants said the plans for contributions were "completely unjustified".
"The FDA has made clear to the government that we will continue - as will the majority of unions - to explore every avenue towards reaching a satisfactory agreement, both on contribution rates and on the issues raised by Lord Hutton in his report on future pension scheme arrangements," said Jonathan Baume, the general secretary of the FDA union.
"These negotiations will be complex and difficult. However, if we are not able to reach agreement then industrial action is possible."

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