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NEWS • VIEWS • INFORMATION • ADVICE
PENSIONS
‘Heads of Agreement’ debacle
Last month the NASUWT National Executive unanimously agreed not to sign up to the Department for Education’s (DfE’s) ‘Heads of Agreement’ on pensions, which outlined the basis on which changes would be made to the Teachers’ Pension Scheme (TPS) in England and Wales.
Four unions chose to sign up – ATL, ASCL, NAHT and Voice. Since initially signing up, NAHT has withdrawn its support for the Heads of Agreement and ASCL has expressed deep reservations.
THE NASUWT DID NOT SIGN UP TO THE ‘HEADS OF AGREEMENT’ BECAUSE:
The process used to seek to reach agreement was totally unsatisfactory, with papers and offers being tabled by the DfE and then withdrawn through lack of Treasury support.
The Heads of Agreement document was incomplete and had been subject to changes not agreed.
No equality impact assessment had been carried out.
Key issues on teachers' contributions were unaddressed.
No information had been provided on the level of contributions employers would be making.
The link between pension benefits and average earnings would be broken.
No clarity had been given on how the ‘25-year guarantee’ offered by the Coalition Government will operate or deliver protection for employees (e.g. further increases to the pension age or contribution rates).
Fair Deal provisions – no explicit guarantee in the Heads of Agreement were issued on 20 December that teachers in independent schools will be part of the TPS – verbal ‘promise’ made subsequently.
The NASUWT entered into the discussions in good faith with a desire to reach a negotiated outcome. However, the discussions were dogged by delays, lack of information, bullying tactics and hostility from the Government.
CRITICAL CONCERNS REMAIN
No limit to normal pension age for teachers, which would be set to rise to 68 and beyond.
No guarantee on accrual rate. Although an improved accrual rate has been offered of 1/57th, this is provisional only and subject to change in the future by the Chancellor without consultation.
No guarantee on the level of employee contributions from 2015. The Government proposes these should increase from April 2012 each year until 2015 to raise money for the Treasury. No guarantees have been given that there will not be further increases from 2015 onwards.
The implications arising from the pension reforms for future work on the concept of ‘total reward’. This was introduced into the Heads of Agreement by the Coalition Government with no detail about what it will mean in practice. It appears to be referring to the total reward teachers receive in terms of pay and pensions. It has the potential to result in adverse changes to remuneration and conditions of service of teachers across the board.
No modelling done based on the DfE offer to enable unions to determine what the provisions in the Heads of Agreement would mean for individual teachers.
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