RPI to CPI Early Day Motion 1032

Ripoff_2

LET’S ALL HOPE COMMONSENSE PREVAILS:
A colleague listened to an interview with Bob Crowe of the RMT union on Friday evening news on radio 4. He was discussing the TUC meeting (Friday) - cuts to public sector pay and pensions. He stated that the key issue on which all the unions were agreed to challenge the government on was the proposed change from RPI to CPI for accrued pension benefits. He went on to point out how this proposed change will reduce a pension by 20 % over 20 years. He also said that the unions were prepared to discuss changes to future pension benefits, but not accrued benefits as this was simply immoral, unfair and not acceptable to the unions.

They will be meeting with the government to discuss this issue and would not rule out industrial action if this proposal were not dropped.

Interested_Taxpayer

Ripoff wrote: »

It will take ALL of you to take action, don't leave it to someone else, spare the time and put pen to paper! I know many of you have already done so and WE all thank you for that but the fight has to continue, remember "WE are ALL in this together"

I e-mailed Jill Insley at the Guardian on Friday using some of MEY's excellent letter and some of my own thoughts on the matter of the live Q & A. I asked that the Guardian follow this up and support us.
I received the following response from her.
"We've had quite a bit of communication with Steve Webb one way and another this week, so a bit more won't hurt! I will take a closer look at your email on Monday if you don't mind, and decide whether to paraphrase or just forward the whole thing."
I have also received a letter from the Deputy Prime Minister's office thanking me for taking the time to write to Mr Clegg but passing my letter and the letter I wrote to Steve Webb on 21 July 2010 without any reply to the Department of Work and Pensions. No surprise there but I note from a piece on the front page of the Telegraph today that Nick Clegg would appear to be under some pressure and needs a rest. www.telegraph.co.uk
Can I suggest that when you write to your MP or the media that you also write to Mr Clegg to tell him how you feel.
Come on everybody. Put more pressure on them.

Ripoff_2

I have also emailed the Guardian today with regards to SWs web chat. I suspect they will collate the letters. Sw does not seem to answer letters anymore, they go straight to the DWP for some underpaid clerk to answer with a bland letter. When will they start to get the message. Now the forests to also save, will we ever get through to them.

No one voted for either forest sell offs or pension devaluation, they have no mandate for either. If they devalue my pension the only pleasure left would be OUR free forests, now they want to take that from us as well!

ordinaryman

Ripoff wrote: »

LET’S ALL HOPE COMMONSENSE PREVAILS:
A colleague listened to an interview with Bob Crowe of the RMT union on Friday evening news on radio 4. He was discussing the TUC meeting (Friday) - cuts to public sector pay and pensions. He stated that the key issue on which all the unions were agreed to challenge the government on was the proposed change from RPI to CPI for accrued pension benefits. He went on to point out how this proposed change will reduce a pension by 20 % over 20 years. He also said that the unions were prepared to discuss changes to future pension benefits, but not accrued benefits as this was simply immoral, unfair and not acceptable to the unions.

They will be meeting with the government to discuss this issue and would not rule out industrial action if this proposal were not dropped.

Thank you Ripoff! I can confirm that your colleague was absolutely correct about Bob Crowe of the RMT being interviewed by Eddie Mair on the PM Programme on Radio 4 last Friday. (Listen to it on the BBC IPlayer) Mr. Crowe brought the issue of the unfairness of the RPI to CPI switch for public sector pensions already in payment to the fore. It seems that, following on from what Brendan Barber said after the meeting on Friday of TUC Leaders, the whole issue of the attack on Pensions is what all Unions can unite around to challenge the Government on. It appears Francis Maude ( he has been the representative of the Goverment to speak so far on possible industrial action) is at least prepared to listen to representations from the Unions, but we must all offer our support to Union Leaders in fighting this and other battles on our behalf.
As many of us have already said on this Forum we have to keep up the pressure on MPs, Ministers, the Media and many of our colleagues who perhaps have yet to be fully aware of the seriousness of the issue. Good luck in all our efforts!

Interested_Taxpayer

Interested_Taxpayer wrote: »

The Civil Service Pensioners' Alliance (www.cspa.co.uk) report on their home page that they will be meeting with their lawyers and hope to have a report for consideration by their Executive Council towards the end of January. In addition, they held a conference on 23 November last year to build wider support against the move to the CPI. They say many pensioner organisations supported the event and many others including the Trade Unions were invited. However, as yet there is no report of the outcome.

You don't need to be a former Civil Servant to join the CSPA. Maybe that is what we should all do?

There is now an update on the CSPA campaign. When you enter the web site above there is a menu on the left hand side of the homepage. Click on CSPA Newsletters and open No 65.
The update is in the body of the newsletter together with a new draft letter to send to those MPs who have not signed up for
EDM 1032.

Ripoff_2

ordinaryman wrote: »

Thank you Ripoff! I can confirm that your colleague was absolutely correct about Bob Crowe of the RMT being interviewed by Eddie Mair on the PM Programme on Radio 4 last Friday. (Listen to it on the BBC IPlayer) Mr. Crowe brought the issue of the unfairness of the RPI to CPI switch for public sector pensions already in payment to the fore. It seems that, following on from what Brendan Barber said after the meeting on Friday of TUC Leaders, the whole issue of the attack on Pensions is what all Unions can unite around to challenge the Government on. It appears Francis Maude ( he has been the representative of the Goverment to speak so far on possible industrial action) is at least prepared to listen to representations from the Unions, but we must all offer our support to Union Leaders in fighting this and other battles on our behalf.
As many of us have already said on this Forum we have to keep up the pressure on MPs, Ministers, the Media and many of our colleagues who perhaps have yet to be fully aware of the seriousness of the issue. Good luck in all our efforts!

Now is not the time to sit back and hope it all gets sorted, we need to keep up the pressure as you say......Keep those letters and emails going to everyone that will listen. A letter of support to union leaders and the TUC would not do any harm either!

Ripoff_2

I have taken the CSPA standard EDM letter indicated by Interested Taxpayer and placed it at the following web location for easy download. http://home.btconnect.com/AP_Publications/effectscalc/

If your MP did not respond or has not signed the EDM then please complete the standard letter and try again. Just overwrite the RED labels with the correct details and post! (It's a word document)

A list of the Mp's that have signed the EDM can be found here http://edmi.parliament.uk/EDMi/EDMDetails.aspx?EDMID=42021&SESSION=905

So far 105 MP's have signed the EDM

Ripoff_2

Bank of England boosts Mervyn King's pension by £1.4m

So as our pensions are being devalued by the RPI to CPI change, Mr King gets a boost but perhaps £200,000 a year will make it better for him to absorb the lesser CPI indexing before he becomes impoverished, unlike the rest of us.

Mind you I suspect his pension will have RPI written into it's trust deeds so it will not affect him?

This is HYPOCRACY at it's finest.............but remember Mr Cameron and Co tell us "We are ALL in this together" well it appears that some are more in this togetherness than others, you and I are being sold down the river as the RATS leave the sinking ship!!!!!!!!!!!!!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/pensions/8294253/Bank-of-England-boosts-Mervyn-Kings-pension-by-1.4m.html

FLAPJACK

Absolutely right!! But I think Mr Cameron would have liked to have been more accurate in his statement..."YOU ARE ALL in this together".

Old_Slaphead

Ripoff wrote: »

Bank of England boosts Mervyn King's pension by £1.4m

So as our pensions are being devalued by the RPI to CPI change, Mr King gets a boost but perhaps £200,000 a year will make it better for him to absorb the lesser CPI indexing before he becomes impoverished, unlike the rest of us.

Mind you I suspect his pension will have RPI written into it's trust deeds so it will not affect him?

This is HYPOCRACY at it's finest.............but remember Mr Cameron and Co tell us "We are ALL in this together" well it appears that some are more in this togetherness than others, you and I are being sold down the river as the RATS leave the sinking ship!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Do you know that Mr King will be getting RPI indexing (and quite frankly, if not, with the sums involved will he be bothered)?

When I expressed similar distaste of the current pension 'apartheid' ie. gold-plated schemes vs the rest I was admonished thus -
"All your posts on this topic....seem to be laced with jealousy. You cannot bear that others may have a better pension provision purely by dint of the fact that the taxpayer underwrites the schemes".

Teapots & kettles springs to mind.

I suggest you congratulate Mr King on having negotiated himself what looks to be an excellent deal at the taxpayers expense

(No prizes for guessing my thoughts on the subject !!!)


This news on the same day as some think tank suggesting that the pension age may need to rise to 68 by 2020. I think it's high time we had some fairness and equality for all in the pension system.