- Conference
- 2004 Retired Members' Conference
- Date
- 12 October 2004
- Decision
- Carried
Conference notes that the first part of the Turner Commission Report on Pensions is published on Tuesday, 12 October. The report will not recommend specific policy solutions but provide a detailed analysis of the pensions crisis.
Leaked information, which appeard in the national press on Sunday, 10 October, reveals that the Turner report has identified the following main problems:
a) There is a £57 billion annual pensions gap;
b) 13 million workers are not saving enough for their pension in retirement;
c) Pensions savings have been falling not rising since 1997.
However, Conference was pleased to note that on Monday, 11 October, Malcolm Wicks, Pensions Minister appeared to signal a willingness to rethink pensions policy when he said the pension credit, the main means-tested pension was “only a policy for the short and medium term”.
Conference also notes that on Monday, 11 OCtober, the TUC announced an urgent lobby of Parliament on pensions, to be held on 16 November.
Conference therefore requests that the UNISON Pensions Project Group meeting to be held on Thursday, 14 October, produce the following:
1) An immediate response on behalf of UNISON to the Turner Report outlining the need to remove means-tested benefits and examine ways of reviving the rapidly closing “defined benefit” schemes which guarantee a future fixed pension;
2)A briefing document on the Turner Report for distribution to all UNISON branches;
3)Information for all UNISON branches, outlining details of the TUC organised lobby of Parliament on pensions to be held on 16 November.