Where on earth has local government minister John Healey been to form the view that, ‘unlike most private sector schemes [which are] dependent on relatively short-term investment performance, the Local Government Pension Scheme is sustained by actuarially-based contributions’ (‘Cut out the council catcalling’, March 13—19)?
Furthermore, he adds that, as a result of three-year valuations, ‘they are not required annually to balance their accounting deficits and liabilities in the same way as private sector schemes’.
The management of private and public pension schemes, at least for those that are funded, is characterised by the similarities between the sectors rather than their differences, particularly in the management of funds and their valuation. It makes you wonder whether anyone checks these flights into print before they expose such misunderstandings.
Of course, the real cause of the ‘council catcalling’ is on the benefits side, where many perceive that the scale of benefits is being maintained at an unsustainable level while the benefits of many in the private sector are being curtailed. But perhaps that is not the issue he wished to address.
David Cranston, pension trustee, Newcastle upon Tyne
