15 February 2002
The union is believed to have flagged up the issue in its submission to the government's ongoing review of public sector pension schemes, which is currently being scrutinised by ministers.
Unison's response came in the same week that a report by the Institute for Fiscal Studies identified a reversal in the trend towards early retirement in the UK, which began in the 1960s.
Glyn Jenkins, head of pensions at Unison, said that although the trend had been noted in parts of the public sector, its impact was 'patchy' and that he feared early retirement could instead be actively encouraged in some organisations – particularly the NHS – 'simply to save costs.'
'Our concern with this [issue] is to ensure that people have not been effectively pushed out of their posts,' he told Public Finance.
'There are growing fears that it takes place. In the NHS, for example, if an employer can encourage a senior member of staff to take early retirement,
the pension payout for the employee would be dramatically reduced. The same applies to redundancies.'
Jenkins admitted, however, that Unison had no firm evidence, possibly because it would be difficult to prove early retirements were made to save money.
A Department of Health spokesman said that it had received no evidence of managers cajoling employees into early retirement to save cash. 'There is no set retirement age for NHS staff. We recognise that qualified and experienced staff have much to contribute to the NHS and encourage trusts to consider flexible retirement options for their staff,' he said.
NHS trusts joined the DoH in outlining their commitment to the sector's flexible retirement initiative, launched in July 2000.
The DoH said that under the initiative, staff close to retirement are encouraged to take up part-time roles in ways that 'do not reduce' their pension payments, because they preserve the pension status of their previous, more senior, role.
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