Tax-funded pensions
Council tax money is funding workers’ pensions. This is costing almost £2 million per day; one third of all council tax in the UK (£630 million) from £2.1 billion collected went on pensions.
I always thought council tax was for services. Orkney spent 69 per cent of its council tax on pensions (I wonder what Shetland pays?) and 425 Glasgow City workers receive up to £33,000. One gets £94,000.
The Glasgow workers also receive a portion of their wages with their pensions. Some pay towards this but the council’s portion is usually greater. The pot for funds in 2002 was £900 million, today it is £4.1 billion, due to the financial crisis.
My sister down south has three wheelie bins for different items (refuse, paper, garden rubbish), all free. You pay £30 if it gets stolen, etc. Up here you pay for a bin. Why can’t Shetland afford them?
Also the banks are now in profit (we own them). Are they paying off their debts? Nope! They are awarding huge bonuses to all staff, part of the problem in the first place.
It is time David Cameron hit them hard, and taught them the economics the man in the street has to live by. You make your suit with the cloth you have.
After the great freeze of 1982, when there were burst pipes countrywide, the government introduced a scheme where you could pay household insurance along with your rent. Very handy if you are on benefits or low income, as this meant you were insured. Does Shetland have this scheme? Nope! It seems everyone else is wrong.
Henry Condy
Cunningsburgh.
Mrs. M
Not quite right. One third of council tax, grant and income is paying pensions.
Colin MacKenzie, PR Office, GCC
The figures quoted in relation to Glasgow City Council in this letter are entirely incorrect.
The Council does not now and never has had in excess of 400 former staff receiving pension benefits of £33,000.
In fact, this is a figure for the entire Strathclyde Pension Fund – one of the largest of its kind in Europe. Its 200,000 members are current and former employees of 40 local and national public bodies and hundreds more employers in the private, voluntary and partnership sectors.
Employees of Glasgow City Council are entitled to join the Local Government Pension Scheme (Scotland) and do so on the same terms as members elsewhere in the country. They receive the same benefits.