Robber Reeves Wants To Amalgate 86 Council Pension Funds.

This seems to be so obvious I dont now how people carry on grumbling - recruit the best managers from schemes already working well.

Absolutely if that is what would happen.

Mollygo

^This seems to be so obvious I dont now how people carry on grumbling - recruit the best managers from schemes already working well.^

Absolutely if that is what would happen.

Why should it not.

Governments are not famous for managing money M0nica, or for choosing the best people for a job.

LGPS's seem to be run well, at least the one that has been paying my pension for past eleven years.

Mollygo

Governments are not famous for managing money M0nica, or for choosing the best people for a job.

Tthe government are not going to be managing the money or choosing the best people for the job, All the government are going to do is facilitate the amalgamation of a number of smaller funds into one larger fund. After that the trustees of the new larger pension groups will be elected by the schemes members and they will appoint the investment managers.

I hope it’s more successful than Gordon Brown’s famous tax grab, which has ultimately left millions of older people far worse off during their retirement.
We weren’t affected, but I know people on GN are affected, and I feel sorry for them.

Just a thought - Tory supporters have extremely short memories. Goldfish level.

madalene Gordon Brown's tax grab was a deliberate - and successful - attempt to undermine the final salary based pension schemes.

This is nothing of the sort. It is merely encouraging smaller funds to merge with similar sized schemes to form bigger funds, which under the same management can reduce management costs and also spread their funds over a wider rang eof investments. This will give the members of those schemes more security.

madalene

I hope it’s more successful than Gordon Brown’s famous tax grab, which has ultimately left millions of older people far worse off during their retirement.
We weren’t affected, but I know people on GN are affected, and I feel sorry for them.

Yes it did, and thank you for acknowledging it rather than dismissing it.
The current plans do make a certain amount of sense, but the reluctance to trust government (any government) with anything to do with pensions goes a long way back.

I've received a small LGPS pension for 4 years. In Scotland, so not affected by RR proposal. I tried along with others to get our pension fund invested in more ethical investments but failed. Our LA fund gets a bad ethics rating, driving deforestation, fossil fuel extraction etc. I hope RR's proposal includes ensuring ethical investment. I understand if you want to reduce your carbon footprint MakeMyMoneyMatter is more effective than a heap of other stuff.

madalene

I hope it’s more successful than Gordon Brown’s famous tax grab, which has ultimately left millions of older people far worse off during their retirement.
We weren’t affected, but I know people on GN are affected, and I feel sorry for them.

The death knell of the final salary pension was Nigel Lawson, not Gordon Brown. Lawson set a surplus limit of 105% of liabilities and taxed the rest heavily.
globalag.igc.org/pension/world/pensionuk.htm

This plan has got nothing to do with how pension savings and pension funds are taxed. It is all about encouraging a number of smaller pension schemes to coalesce to forma smaller group of bigger schemes, whose investing policy can be more flexible because it has a large investment fund to invest.

Smaller schemes are also more likely to become underfunded and end up being vested in the Pensions Protection scheme, which pays out smaller pensions.

Both DH and I draw our pensions from 2 ofthe biggest pension schemes in the UK and every year, reading the schemes reports, plus of course the size of our annual rises, it is very clear that bigger schemes have better security because their invested money is spread over a wider range of investments, and generally the returns are higher.

madalene

I hope it’s more successful than Gordon Brown’s famous tax grab, which has ultimately left millions of older people far worse off during their retirement.
We weren’t affected, but I know people on GN are affected, and I feel sorry for them.

The death knell of the defined benefit pension was not Gordon Brown, but the reforms of Nigel Lawson. Tax relief had already declined drastically by the time of Gordon Brown.

The Tories intended exactly the same. It's just Labour bashing.

So it is just Labour continuing with Tory policies again. I don't know why Conservative voters don't like Rachel Reeves, she just continues with their own party's policies.

Casdon

It looks like it’s a separate body to the administration which each Local Authority directly controls Elegran, I just looked it up and found this.
www.lgpsmember.org/about-the-lgps/how-the-lgps-is-run/#:~:text=The%20Scheme%20is%20administered%20locally,comply%20with%20the%20Scheme%20rules.
Presumably the Local Pension Boards would be replaced by one National Pension Board under these proposals? It sounds similar in that respect to the NHS pension arrangements which are already run nationally, and have a Board.

Well, that's reassuring because Local Authorities don't have a good record of investing, in fact I sometimes wonder who advises them because they seem to lose taxpayers' money hand over fist in disastrous investments.

Remember the Icelandic banks scandal? At least they did get some of their money back, I believe. Our LA invested millions in commercial properties for future rental income, but did so just as there was a downturn in companies wanting to rent commercial property.

Surely someone should advise them to stop reckless speculation with money that should be spent on essential services?

Pension funds are not managed by Local Authorities, they are managed by their Trustees, who are voted into place by pension fund members. The trustees then appoint companies who specialise in pension fund investment to make the investment decisions, or advise the trustees.

This thread has been beset by those who fail to understand what the proposals are and have complete ignorance of how pension funds actually work

This thread has been beset by those who fail to understand what the proposals are and have complete ignorance of how pension funds actually work

Please don't include me in that condemnation.

M0nica

Pension funds are not managed by Local Authorities, they are managed by their Trustees, who are voted into place by pension fund members. The trustees then appoint companies who specialise in pension fund investment to make the investment decisions, or advise the trustees.

This thread has been beset by those who fail to understand what the proposals are and have complete ignorance of how pension funds actually work

Quite.
I’m fortunate in having a pension based on the years I worked for a local authority. I worked in the north west. My pension provider linked mine/our to West Yorkshire pension fund which was projected to invest very well

This thread is over a month old and was found to be fake news even then.

I've been a LG pensioner for 27 years. I was made redundant (voluntarily) at 50 and was able to take early retirement at the same time.. previously I had been a FE teacher and the two pensions were amalgamated, giving me an adequate income until I reached state pension age. I do remember private pension reps trying to persuade teaching colleagues to transfer their funds to private providers. A few did but I think they might be regretting it now!

keepingquiet

This thread is over a month old and was found to be fake news even then.

Worth bearing in mind.

Graceless

I've been a LG pensioner for 27 years. I was made redundant (voluntarily) at 50 and was able to take early retirement at the same time.. previously I had been a FE teacher and the two pensions were amalgamated, giving me an adequate income until I reached state pension age. I do remember private pension reps trying to persuade teaching colleagues to transfer their funds to private providers. A few did but I think they might be regretting it now!

It always interests me when the cry ‘gold plated pensions’ is shouted. We paid into our pensions. We earned less than people doing the same/similar jobs in the private industry. I could have earned a significantly higher salary but - I couldn’t work in an organisation whose prime aim was to financially profit from safeguarding the most vulnerable children in our society, in addition, a solid pension was one of the positives in l.a work

keepingquiet

This thread is over a month old and was found to be fake news even then.

😂

Allira

^This thread has been beset by those who fail to understand what the proposals are and have complete ignorance of how pension funds actually work^

Please don't include me in that condemnation.

'beset' does not mean 'all'. It just means a persistent number of posters who have misunderstood the original proposal and do not understand how pension funds are run, despite a number of posters explaining what the proposals actually are and how pension funds work, which i find very surprising considering how many GN members must be drawing occupational pensions or paying into pension plans.