Perpetuating the myths on public sector pensions

There is no greater mythology than that surrounding public sector pensions. There second great mythology is that John Hutton (now Lord) was ever anything but a Tory - he was picked to write a report on public sector pensions (interim report published today) because he would write exactly what the Tories wanted to hear.

The infamous and ubiquitous “gold-plated” public sector pension is of course largely a myth. The average local government pension resides at just under £4,000 per year. Excluding the upper echelons of the senior civil service, the average civil service pension is only slightly higher at £4,200 per year (a positively tin-plated £80 per week). For teachers the average is a more healthy – yet far from gold-plated – £9,000 per year. Overall, the TUC suggests the average public sector pension is £5,500 per year.

Public sector pensions have already been attacked though by the indexation changes announced in George Osborne's Emergency Budget in June. According to TUC research, an eighty year old pensioner with an average public sector pension would be more than £650 a year worse off – equating to £12.50 per week.

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 cost of providing tax relief to all higher rate taxpayers, on their private pensions, is more than five times as much.

Ignoring all the facts, Hutton today said "This is a problem and we can't go on as we are."

So he recommended higher employee contributions, raising the retirement age, and ending final salary schemes.

Osborne will indicate government thinking on public sector pensions in the Comprehensive Spending Review on 20 October. When setting up the commission Osborne described public sector pensions as "unsustainable". Thing is they're not: the cost of public sector pensions today is 1.9% of GDP in 2010-11, but by 2060 that will have fallen to 1.4%.

Of course, the other calculation to make is that if public sector pensions are reduced, it will simply result in more people being entitled to means-tested benefits such as Pension Credit.

The final report will be published just prior to the March 2011 Budget - and then the attacks will start. Until then expect to hear lots more about 'gold-plated', 'unsustainable' public sector pensions. Just remember, it's bollocks.

Update: great article in the Morning Star on unions' responses to the report

Update 2: Great letter from Richard Murphy in today's Guardian: "in 2007-08, private pension funds in the UK received subsidies amounting to £37.6bn while paying pensions in that year of just £35bn to those in retirement. The result was that in that year every single penny of pensions paid in the UK were paid at direct cost to the UK taxpayer, and none in effect by anyone else. The question Hutton should therefore be asking is not whether pensions should be paid by taxpayers or not, but whether there is in fact any viable, working alternative to pensions being paid by taxpayers?"