levels to fill the gap leit trom the 1990s. • The end of the stock market boom in at the beginning or tae macaniam wiped out the surpluses and led to substantially deficits in many schemes. • The typical local government worker is a low paid, part time woman. Local government employers estimate that 34 per cent of part time women workers were not even in the pension scheme. •A study by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and development has described the UK pension system as one of the 'least generous' pensions systems in the world, ranking 26th out of 30 developed countries. • A worker on an average salary of £22,000 would collect a state pension equivalent to 48 percent of their atter-tax earnings. • State pension schemes in most other developed nations - including Austria, Hungary, Italy, Spain and Turkey - provide 75 per cent of an employee's after tax earnings. Luxembourg provides 110 per cent of the working wage. The average across all countries was 69 percent, almost 20 per cent above the figure for British pensioners. Although the first organized pension scheme in Britain was one for Royal Naval Officers in the 1670s, most working people didn't have pensions until the early 20th century.
In 1908, the Liberal MP and Chancellor, David Lloyd George, introduced the Old Age Pensions Act, which was non-contributory and consisted of 10p-25p per week from age 70. This was on a means tested basis.
Before this time, at the birth
Tne Revolution, working men in guilds and co-operative societies, which were the precursors to the modern trade unions, had attempted to take care of their older members from money collected in the community.
This could often be a dangerous undertaking due to laws against "combinationism" which were enacted in the early1800s largely response spontaneous protests for food known as the "bread riots".
Life expectancy was so low then that the primary concern was starvation rather than financial provision for one's future.
An initial contributory scheme was set up for manual workers in 1925, but it wasn't Thatcher's government in 1980 broke the link between the state pension and average earnings, sharply reducing the relative value of what state pensioners receive. Act of 1946 (effective in 1948) that contributory state pensions were available for all.
Then the pension age for men was 65 and 60 for women.
In 1959, pensions were based on graduated earnings, followed almost 20 years later by a scheme called SERPS (State Earnings-Related Pensions Scheme) which allowed members of the scheme to be paid 25% of their earnings provided they completed a minimum number of years in the scheme
This was lowered to 20% in 1988 and the scheme was replaced completely in 2002.
Under SERPS, workers wiln pulvale pension plans were allowed to opt out of National Insurance pension contributions.
Thatcher's government in 1980 broke the link between the increase in the state pension and the rise in average earnings sharply reducing the relative value of what state pensioners receive.
After various corporate scandals became news in the 1990s, most notoriously in Britain around the publishing tycoon, Robert Maxwell, who had raided the Mirror group's pension fund to finance business deals, new regulations were put in place to allow for compensation. provisions only cover people within three years of retirement age and has a cap of €12,000.
At the 2005 Labour Party conference, a protest of naked pensioners on Brighton beach highlighted the injustice faced by many in private sector occupational pension schemes.
An estimated 80,000 people are in similar situations and will never be able to afford to retire, having lost all of their pension contributions when their employers went bankLUDL.
From the late 1990s onward onTain das seen the introduction of the Minimum Income Guarantee (MIG), a support for poorer pensioners, followed by numerous attempts to mix state provision with private savings in the form of "stakeholder pensions", which has become the battle cry of New Labour today.
The Pension Credit, introduced in 2003 and replacing the MIG, subjects half a million pensioners to means testing and effectively penalizes anyone who has saved for retirement.
For example, a single person above the age of 60 who has only £6,000 or more Il savilige and a weekly income of £110 per week would be ineligible for the pensions credit. This is a way to keep the poorest pensioners in absolute poverty or force them back to work.
In stark contrast, the pensions total for executives in Britain's 100 largest companies reaches £900 million while around 55% of all pension-related tax subsidies -£11 billion - go to the top 10% money earners in Britain.
As has been made clear from the recent Turner Report, which calls for a retirement age of 68, we are rapidly moving backwards.
We are nearing the age of 70 once again for retirement. How much longer until pension payments are back to their modern monetary equivalents of 10p-25p per week?
It has become acceptable for private businesses to offer
protection for their employees.
Other hugely profitable companies like Rentokil are closing their final salary schemes to all workers, while public sector pensions are under attack left and right.
Meanwhile, New Labour repeats its rhetoric that people who live longer must therefore work longer. This rings nollow tor inoustral workers whose life expectancy is far less than that of office workers. The new pensions proposals fail to
Blake this into account
Just as the industrial workers of the past risked their lives to form organizations to detend their right not to starve and prolecl fellow members of the community, so too must the trade unions in Britain today fight tooth and nail to maintain the right of workers to keep their pensions.
page 13 of the scan
WOR