FDA fears tax on performance - 10 January 2005

The FDA, the union for senior managers and professionals in public service, expressed deep concern over the review of the NHS pension scheme announced today which will ask NHS employees to work longer and accept a lower pension than promised.

According to FDA general secretary Jonathan Baume:
"As we had feared, the pensions misery is being spread across all five million workers in the public sector. Today's announcement confirms that the NHS will move to a pension age of 65 and promote a switch to an inferior pension scheme similar to that proposed last month for the civil service.

"However, we praise NHS Employers for the honesty of their consultation document which confirms the FDA's fears over the impact of 'career average' schemes and admits that they only offer improvements for some at the expense of others in the same scheme.

"As it states in paragraph 8.17 of the Consultation Document, CARE [career average] schemes, if properly designed and funded, benefit those with flat career structures. However, compared with final salary schemes, they do this by taking away benefits from those with better career progression.

"We will be responding to these reviews in due course. In the meantime, we believe that these changes are unjustified, unnecessary and unacceptable, and amount to nothing less than a tax on performance."

Notes for Editors
1. The FDA is the trade union and professional body representing the UK's 12,000 senior civil and public servants. Our members include policy advisors, senior managers, tax inspectors, economists, statisticians, accountants, special advisers, government lawyers, crown prosecutors and NHS managers.
2. For further information contact: