Private sector had to face pension rise

I REFER to recent news reports and union furore regarding public sector pension reforms and to Treasury Chief Secretary Danny Alexander’s statement that it is “unjustifiable to ask the taxpayer to work longer and pay more so that public sector workers can retire earlier and receive more themselves”. I wholeheartedly support this statement.

Like millions of others, I worked my entire career in the private sector and contributed to a defined benefits (final salary) pension scheme that was on course to provide me with a good pension. Following the introduction of tax burdens on the investments of pension schemes instigated by Gordon Brown, final salary pensions became unaffordable in the private sector and almost all schemes were forced to close, to be replaced by defined contribution schemes.

In my own case, my contribution to the final salary scheme was initially three per cent that increased to 7½ per cent over the years as the company tried to maintain the scheme. When the final salary scheme was closed, when I was within six years of normal retirement age, and replaced by a defined contributions scheme I needed to contribute 10 per cent of my salary to stand any chance of maintaining my pension. This is a 33 per cent increase; a far cry from the 3.2 per cent average contribution increase being asked of the public sector.

Also, one gets the impression that public sector workers are the only group of people having their normal retirement age increased to 66 years. This is not the case. I understand that with the exception of a few cases (again public sector workers), everyone will have their normal retirement age increased to 66 years. (I do sympathise with female workers across the board and believe that a more equitable solution to increasing their retirement age must be found).

I would ask, on what basis do public sector workers consider themselves to be different to everyone else?

Disability and pay levels

From: Coun Dale Smith, Co-chairman of the Bradford District Strategic Disability Partnership.

ALTHOUGH I like to count myself as among his most loyal of supporters, this does not mean that I agree with Philip Davies MP on every issue, I do however defend his right to express his views (Yorkshire Post, June 18).

He raises the issue of employment of people with disabilities in a mature, calm and sincere manner. I know that people with disabilities seeking employment will not want a job offered to them only on the basis that they are a pound or two an hour cheaper to employ than other candidates.

Everyone wants to know that their selection was fairly done and that any offer made was based upon the fact that they were the most suitable candidate for the job. Race, class, age, sex, creed or disability must not be a factor in selection.

Philip does raise, perhaps inadvertently, the challenge we all face: how to provide jobs and support people to gain the skills and experience they need to migrate into the world-of-work, whether it is through supported employment, apprenticeships, work experience or self-employment. While inexperience and training needs are valid reasons for paying an individual a lower wage than their skilled colleagues, having a disability certainly isn’t such a reason.

Foreign food for most of us

From: Mike Appleyard, Hill Rise, Market Weighton.

I READ with interest your headline “Whitehall under orders to put British food on the menu” (Yorkshire Post, June 17).

Watching Andrew Marr in his excellent programme on Megacities, one item brought home the vacuousness of the statement. He was talking about our own megacity, London whose need for food was such that “the whole of the UK’s food production would be needed to feed the citizens of London”. As the population of the capital is about 10 million, and the UK as a whole is nearing 60 million, this means about 75 per cent of our food will need to be imported.

If more British food is to be served up to troops, civil servants, and prisoners, that means the rest of the populace will have to make do with “low-quality foreign produce”.

It seems Cameron, Clegg and co are making empty promises.