Another Pension Grab?

[expat]

Have I missed it here, or have you all missed this?

Government wants councils to invest their pension funds (council pensions are funded) in PFI for schools.

I'd say if it's a good investment, put it on the open market; if it's a bad investment, then it's a pension grab.

Do you care? Well, yes. If they will do it to council pension funds, they will do it to yours as soon as they figure out how.

[Cyberman]

We should care because any losses will be made up by the council-tax payer. These pensions are already under-funded and thus 25% of council tax goes towards them, so this will just exacerbate the problem.

[expat]

We should care because any losses will be made up by the council-tax payer. These pensions are already under-funded and thus 25% of council tax goes towards them, so this will just exacerbate the problem.

That is true. But that's only this problem as it affects us directly.

Worse to me is the clear image of a government scrabbling down the back of the sofa for more cash: they'll get to our pensions and savings soon enough. Your pension will be invested in the government's PFI schemes whether you like it or not; then perhaps later simply absorbed into the state pension - where it will be as safe as your National Insurance money that was already supposed to be paying for your pension.

These investments, not attractive enough to gather investors in their own right, will not be backed by government guarantees, because that would mean putting them on the balance sheet, and the whole point is not to. Then a later generation of voters will repudiate them.