Hutton and the government: wrong and unfair on public sector pensions

Full text below of letter printed in today's Guardian


As economists we are opposed to the public sector pension reforms proposed by this government and Lord Hutton.

Public sector pensions are far more efficient than private pensions. The net cost of paying public sector pensions in 2009/10 was a little under £4 billion. The cost of providing tax relief to the one per cent of those earning more than £150,000 is more than twice as much. The total cost of providing tax relief to all higher rate taxpayers, on their private pensions, is more than five times as much.

By changing pension calculations from the RPI measure of inflation to CPI, pensioners (in all sectors) will be made hundreds of pounds worse off, with the loss accumulating as pensioners get older. The vast majority of economists and statisticians recognise that RPI is a more accurate inflation measure.

Taken as a whole these changes are a substantial disincentive to save because they will encourage people, already burdened by student debt, high housing costs, and the need to save when the social security safety net is being withdrawn, to leave public sector pension schemes and abandon provision for their old age altogether. This contradicts Iain Duncan Smith’s words earlier this week about rewarding saving. If public sector workers opt out of their schemes because of rising costs, it could leave some schemes in jeopardy.

The government claims these changes will help reduce the deficit, but they will take money out of the pay packets of today’s workers and from tomorrow’s pensioners, suppressing demand and damaging any prospect of recovery, as well as increasing pensioner poverty.

On public sector pensions, as on so much else, the government has got it wrong.

Richard Murphy, Tax Research LLP
Andrew Fisher, LEAP
Howard Reed, Landman Economics
Dr Stephanie Blankenburg, SOAS
Professor Prem Sikka, University of Essex
John Christensen, Tax Justice Network
Professor Gregor Gall, University of Hertfordshire
Colin Hines, Green New Deal Group
Bryn Davies, Union Pension Services

Confirmed: Cuts will hit poorest hardest

Working people, the unemployed and the sick will be hit 10 times harder by spending cuts than previous Con-Dem predictions, a new TUC analysis revealed on Friday.

TUC-commissioned economists shattered myths peddled by Chancellor George Osborne and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg that the spending review was about "fairness."

They revealed that the poorest 10 per cent will be hit 15 times harder than the richest 10 per cent.

The new analysis stands in stark contrast to government claims that overall the cuts would hit the worst off only five times more than the richest in society.

The TUC originally predicted in its Where The Money Goes report that cuts of 25 per cent by 2012-13 would mean that the poorest 10 per cent of households would lose around 20 per cent of their income.

But using data from the Spending Review the TUC showed that overall cuts to public spending - excluding benefits and tax credits - of £48 billion by 2014-15 will be even more regressive, partly because of deep cuts to services which are disproportionately used by the poorest households, such as social housing and social care.

TUC commissioned economist Howard Reed pointed out that if the cuts were examined by their social "function" rather than by department, the picture looks even bleaker.

"Social care will be cut by 20 per cent, social housing 24 per cent, policing 20 per cent and higher and further education 27 per cent," he said.

TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said: "Even when the effects of benefit changes are taken out of the equation, cuts to services surgically target the poorest households and leave the rich relatively untouched."

And Haringey Council leader Claire Kober warned that cuts to local budgets, services and housing allowances will make it impossible for local authorities to cope with the influx.

"We are being set up to fail," she said.

Left Economics Advisory Project co-ordinator Andrew Fisher called on the TUC to co-ordinate resistance to the coalition's "obscene attacks."

He said: "The TUC analysis of Osborne's spending review is to be congratulated and confirms what the IFS said the day before and what our instincts told us all immediately: the CSR was all-out class war.

"At the June Budget and again this week, Osborne lied to us that his cuts would be fair.

"Within a matter of hours again his lies have been irrefutably exposed."

*This article appeared in the Morning Star on Sat 23 Oct