Civil Service Pensions

March 10, 2011 By Malcolm Blair-Robinson

This has been a ticking bomb under the public finances for a very long time and Lord Hutton, a former Labour minister, is to be commended for the realism and frankness of his report.

Civil Service unions are understandably angry and will do all they can to protect their members’ retirement expectations. However the truth of the matter is that any concessions will have to be paid for and they will be paid for in fewer public sector jobs. The Unions need in private and when not making  propoganda on the airwaves, to reflect on the reality.  It is this. The bankers may well have been the source of the financial crisis, but the budget was in deficit beforehand. The primary reason among many is that there are too many people working in the public sector for the private sector to sustain. If the Unions want to avoid even more job losses they have to get real and do the sums themselves.