Royal Mail pension assets sell-off could generate £25bn

[fishtank]

Would any possible change to the terms of our pensions only apply after the date of any changes?
In other words,are the monies paid in so far safe from any changes down the line?

It depends how much faith you put in Ed Davey's "words of reassurance".

Clause 19 provides protection against RMPP members’ benefits being adversely affected. The Minister provided “words of reassurance” regarding the arrangements that would be put in place:

I would like to make it clear that Royal Mail pension plan pensioners currently receiving pension payments will not see any reduction in their pension; I want to be absolutely clear that that message has got across and any fears or worries are dispelled. Thanks to the protection provided by clause 19, which we will, no doubt, come on to in due course, their pension entitlements will be the same, but will be paid from a different source—the new public scheme.
Secondly, the accrued rights of members who left the service before retirement will be the same as when they left service, and they will receive the same amount of revaluation—that is, increases to account for inflation—before payment. As with the pensioners, at retirement their pension will be paid from a different source: the new public scheme.
Thirdly, for active members still employed by Royal Mail, there will be no reduction in the rights that they have already built up. For those members, the rights accrued up to the cut-off date will become payable from the new public scheme as though the member had left service on the cut-off date. The remainder, including any increases attributable to real wage growth, will be paid by the Royal Mail Pension Plan. In other words, the total amount of pension payable to a member for service built up prior to the cut-off date will be the same, but it will simply be funded from two different sources.

I've read the Act including clause 19 and...let's just say...there are loopholes.
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/201 ... view=plain" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


I think we need to see just how poor or good the new scheme is before we can really make sense of what that final cheque might be.

[RobertT]

Would any possible change to the terms of our pensions only apply after the date of any changes?
In other words,are the monies paid in so far safe from any changes down the line?

There are currently laws that say that benefits accrued up to 'changeover date' will be safe, which apply to any pension scheme that brings in any changes.That's what happened when we changed from final salary to average salary and that's also the case with the public sector workers who went on strike a few months ago.

The general consensus on this thread so far seems to be that laws could be passed that could mean retrospective reductions in pension payouts. Personally, I think that's unlikely, although possible.

To put it in context, assuming the sell off goes ahead, the taxpayer will taking on the £4.5 Billion(?) deficit of the RM pension scheme. The current government debt is about £988 Billion and the public sector pension liabilities are currently standing at over £1 Trillion. So our pension money is, relatively speaking, small change.

[fishtank]

The general consensus on this thread so far seems to be that laws could be passed that could mean retrospective reductions in pension payouts. Personally, I think that's unlikely, although possible.

There is no need to pass any new laws,there is already scope within the Postal Services Act to make retrospective changes to accrued rights...what it does need though is members consent.
That's collective consent...not individual consent.

(6)The power of the Secretary of State to amend a new public scheme may not be exercised in any manner which would or might adversely affect any provision of the scheme made in respect of qualifying accrued rights unless—
(a)the consent requirements are satisfied in respect of the exercise of the power in that manner, or
(b)the scheme is amended in the prescribed manner.

[hubbahubba]

Certainly food for thought,although i can't say leaving the fate of all our futures in ANY governments hands fills me with joy....

[pokos27]

maybe it will be like the collague shares and the pension will be worthless as well.

[pokos27]

If they stopped dsa there would be no need to do this, but alas, royal mail is controlled by Brussels.