Manchester

Coming Up

General Meeting

19th May 2012

click here for the agenda

Education cuts never heal

Manchester Teachers' Association

Founded 1874

A Message From the General Secretary

Steve Marciniak

30th April 2012

From April 2012 you start paying more in pension contributions, while your pay is being frozen and you're also being asked to work longer to get less when you finally do retire. The vast majority of teachers' unions have rejected the Government's pension proposals and the NUT stands willing to work with any and all of those unions.

12th March 2012

NUT Pensions Update

Joint e-petition on pensions

As part of the campaign in defence of our pensions the NUT and NASUWT have set up an e-petition on HM Government's website. The petition calls on the Government to enter into genuine negotiations with us about the Teachers' Pension Scheme. If we are to get the negotiated settlement we are working flat out to achieve, the Government must accept that further discussions and additional funding from the Treasury are needed.

Please support the petition. It only takes a minute or two to sign up.

If the petition attracts over 100,000 signatures there should be a debate in Parliament about it, where the Minister would have to come and explain the Government's actions. So once you've signed please share the petition link as widely as possible.

National newspaper advertisement in defence of pensions

The NUT has taken out advertisements in the national edition of the Metro newspaper. The advert appeared on 28 February and 1 March and encourages readers to visit the NUT website to sign the NUT and NASUWT’s e-petition to Parliament.

Pensions Update

The NUT has condemned the Government's announcement on Thursday 9 March that it has ended negotiations with the unions on its proposals on public sector pensions.

Despite some concessions brought about because of strike action the Government's position on teachers' pensions remains unchanged. The Government still wants to make teachers pay more, work longer and get less.

The NUT National Executive will be meeting on Wednesday to decide its response and consider the results of the NUT's consultation of all members which asked members whether they endorsed the NUT's decision not to agree to these pension proposals and whether they would support further action.

1st February 2012

What Are The Government's Latest Pension Proposals

The Government's latest proposals for the Teachers' Pension Scheme (TPS) are contained in a document called the "TPS heads of agreement". You can see that on the NUT website here together with an NUT briefing on the proposals.

The NUT, in common with NASUWT, UCU and UCAC, has not "signed up" to the document. These four unions cover around 80% of members of the TPS. Four unions - ATL, ASCL, NAHT and Voice - have "signed up" to the document although even that is subject to the views of their members.

Why Hasn't The NUT Signed Up?

The NUT hasn't signed up because the heads of agreement require teachers to

work to 68 to get a full pension
pay an average of 50% more for their pension and
have their pension indexed by CPI instead of RPI (cutting the value of their pension by around 15%)

Hasn't The Government Made Concessions?

As a result of our strike (together with ATL, PCS and UCU) on 30th June, and with the threat of wider action in November, the Government made concessions on 2nd November, offering

an 8% improvement in the Government's proposed "cost ceiling" - the amount of money it is willing to see spent on teachers' pensions; and
some protection to those within 10 years of retirement, and some lower and tapered protection for those between 10 and 13.5 years of retirement.

The NUT was pleased that the Government had recognised the need to make concessions. However, as we pointed out then, every member would still be thousands of pounds out of pocket from higher contributions and CPI indexation; and the 75% of NUT members not covered by protection would still have to work longer to get a full pension.

But Didn't The Government Make Further Concessions Just Before Christmas?

No. The Government simply proposed some different ways of using the money available for teachers' pensions. Crucially, the "cost ceiling" remained the same as on 2nd November - no more money has been found to solve the dispute.

The accrual rate (the amount of pension earned each year) has been improved marginally to 1/57 of pay and the reduction in pension for those retiring earlier than the normal pension age has been cut slightly. This was accompanied, however, by changes in the way your new "career average pension" is calculated - the pension you earn will no longer be indexed to earnings until you retire. This change finances the improvements made.

Another negative change between 2nd November and Christmas was that the Chancellor brought forward by 10 years the date for pension ages rising to 67. This just illustrates how, in the proposed new scheme, you will never be able to be certain what your retirement age is.

How Will These Changes Affect Me Personally?

To see how much the new pension proposals will cost you, check out the revised NUT pension calculator.

Can We Still Stop These Changes?

The changes to pension ages aren't scheduled to start until 2015 and we intend to use every moment to convince politicians and the general public that they are unfair. Teachers can't work to 68. The Government still hasn't carried out a valuation of the TPS, so there is no evidence that higher contributions are needed. In any case, your increased contributions will go to the Treasury not to teachers' pensions. The change for RPI to CPI is all about saving Government money, not about a fairer means of managing pension increases.

The NUT is determined to carry on the campaign to stop these changes to our pensions. With your continued support we can still win.

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