NASUWT: Another chapter in the sorry saga of pension changes
The DfE has today announced its decision to press ahead with increasing the pension contributions of teachers and other public service workers from April 2012. Chris Keates, General Secretary of the NASUWT, the largest teachers’ union said:
"Choosing to announce the increase in contributions in the final hours before the national discussions on pension changes have concluded is unnecessarily provocative but regrettably such ill-timed announcements have been a feature this sorry saga.
"The increase in contributions is not to support the funding of the teachers' or other public service workers' pension schemes, it is simply to raise money for the Exchequer
" It is a wholly unjustified tax on teachers.
"The DfE statement seeks to minimise the financial impact by conveniently ignoring that these additional financial penalties follow the Chancellor's Autumn statement in which he announced a continuation of the pay freeze for a further two years.
"In the same statement, the Chancellor callously dismissed alternative strategies which would prevent the continuing misery of job loss, pay cuts and spiralling cost of living experienced by public and private sector workers."
ENDS
Ben Padley
Journalist
Campaigns and Communications
NASUWT,
Hillscourt Education Centre,
Rose Hill,
Birmingham.
B45 8RS
Tel: 0121 453 6150
www.twitter.com/nasuwtunion
www.twitter.com/Chris_K_NASUWT
www.twitter.com/benpadley1
www.facebook.com/nasuwt
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