Councils respond to Taxpayers Alliance pensions report

4 March 2010

Responding to the Taxpayers' Alliance report on local government pensions, Jo Miller, deputy chief executive of the Local Government Association, said:

"It is extraordinary that the Taxpayers' Alliance is attacking the pensions that dedicated lollipop ladies, bin men and librarians have paid into every working day.

"The average pension paid out under the scheme is just £4,044 a year to people, many of whom have toiled all their working lives to provide services to local residents. These vital services cannot be provided by robots. If we as a society want to recruit the best people and retain them we need to pay for it.

"Local government pensions are funded by investments built up using contributions from staff and employers.

"The Taxpayers Alliance is basing its figures on a snapshot of investments at the height of the financial crisis when all investments were hit hard, and all public and private sector pension schemes will reflect that. They would be better turning their fire on the banks which brought the markets to their knees and had to be rescued by taxpayers' hard-earned cash.

"Council pension funds are carefully managed in the long term to cope with ups and downs in the markets. Councils are determined to make sure their pension scheme is fair to taxpayers, employers and employees. Councils' payments into the pension scheme are equivalent to many of defined benefit pensions in the private sector."

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