Conference votes to defend civil service pensions scheme

PCS national conference resolved on 23 May 2018 to defend the civil service pension scheme and other public service pension schemes and stay at the forefront of the fight for security and dignity in older age. Debating motion A63, proposed by Ian Albert on behalf of the NEC, conference heard how the government’s plans to shift away from defined benefit schemes and to offer only defined contribution schemes was part of its continuing attacks on public sector pensions.

Ian told conference we must resist the attacks on people in later life. He said: “It’s to the credit of this union in the way that we have stood up in defence of pensions but it’s a battle that’s far from over. The fight for dignity in retirement must go on, for the many, not the few.”

Renewed threat

The motion was seconded by Bobby Young of Revenue and Custom Glasgow and Clyde HMRC and Valuation branch. The motion condemned the government’s pension policy that will over time bring about a renewed threat to the future of the core civil service pension scheme. The motion reaffirmed our intention to explore any campaigning or legal options to challenge the use of measures such as CPI which offer less protection against inflation and to place unfair constraints on the transitional protection relating to imposed changes which have cut pension benefits.

It was agreed that PCS must work with the TUC, other trade unions, and campaigning organisations such as the National Pensioners Convention (NPC) and Women Against State Pension Inequality (WASPI) to:

• secure substantial improvements to the state pension
• cancel any increase to the state pension age above 65
• compensate women who were affected by the speeding up of the move to a single pension age
• put back in place a state backed scheme which can guarantee an underpinning pension of 70% of the living wage, an option for an affordable earnings related pension
• extend the means by which our members can exercise the option to buy additional state pension to compensate for contracted out pension equivalent (COPE) deductions.

The motion, which was carried, also called for civil service pension administrator MyCSP to be brought back into the civil service.