Royal Mail pension fund transfer due next month

[mail boy]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-17423461" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Bahia Feliz]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-17423461

The transfer - which was backed by the Communication Worker's Union - will provide a windfall gain to the government's budget of about £28bn.

[Red Robbo]

Does that mean we are not insolvent any more ?

[falkor]

Phantom shares won't be worthless then ?

[Lounge Lizard]

"The £28bn of assets will result in an immediate one-for-one reduction in the budget deficit.
The pension fund's £37.5bn liabilities, in contrast, will only show up in the deficit over the next 20 to 30 years."
So the ConDem coalition pockets £28,000,000,000 and future governments will have to find £37,500,000,000 and that's meant to be good news.

[fmrPOSTIE]

Quite staggering really. The Govt has just cut the deficit by £28bn in one swipe.

Royal Mail pensions are now unfunded pay-as-you-go schemes (well the scheme which has been transferred).

[jessicarabbit]

Privatisation just moved one step closer

[Cut Off King]

CWU, a few years back, "we have de-coupled the pension issue from the pay dispute and we will have a seperate vote on that issue"



It must be soon then............

[Cut Off King]

Jump forward 10-15 years.....

The Royal Mail pension fund liabilities have become to great for the goverment to bare, as such, we are downgrading the pension and upping the age it can be claimed to 70 years old.

[Cut Off King]

Ohh Mr Magoo (CWU) , you've done it again......

( only older members will remember that cartoon, lol. )

[north london driver]

as our pensions seemed to be used to help out this lying goverment
will the members be able to vote on this farce or will it be like a revision
and being told its the best deal we will get.
my office has been ripped apart by planning and union deals and now the
goverment and our union seem to be doing a deal.

[POSTMAN]

Jump forward 10-15 years.....

The Royal Mail pension fund liabilities have become to great for the goverment to bare, as such, we are downgrading the pension and upping the age it can be claimed to 70 years old.

Interesting from the wall st journal,who aint no slouches...

the assumption of responsibility for paying Royal Mail pensions over time will leave the government's finances worse off over the longer term.

[Tman]

the assumption of responsibility for paying Royal Mail pensions over time will leave the government's finances worse off over the longer term.

Only if all terms and conditions remain the same as at present, but somewhere down the line a future government will change T&Cs as they see fit, and that's the worrying thing.
Then again, governments no longer do "long term planning" so even if it where to cause problems, it would be another government's headache to deal with rather than the present bunch of no-hopers.

[borders]

being as that is our deferred wages will we all get a say in how it is spent ? probably go to bailing out some more poor bankers or fighting spurious wars ? :dcfo

[borders]

the assumption of responsibility for paying Royal Mail pensions over time will leave the government's finances worse off over the longer term.

Only if all terms and conditions remain the same as at present, but somewhere down the line a future government will change T&Cs as they see fit, and that's the worrying thing.
Then again, governments no longer do "long term planning" so even if it where to cause problems, it would be another government's headache to deal with rather than the present bunch of no-hopers.

spot on Tman , can any Government be trusted ? you can see this happening over time , the watering down of the T&Cs until they are worth the bare minimum .