Before a debate can take place based on the e-petition reaching 100,000 signatures a sponsoring MP or MPs need to make the case for the debate to the Backbench Business Committee. We hope to hold a Lobby of Parliament to coincide with any such debate. We will issue further details about this as soon as we can but in the meantime you can lobby your MP locally in their constituency.

The pension increase is applied by two Parliamentary Orders. The Social Security Benefits (Uprating) Order, which applies the change to State second pensions, is debated in Parliament annually. We are therefore asking you to write to your MP and lobby them locally in their constituency to ask them to speak and vote against the Order which is usually debated between mid February and mid March. The quicker you contact your MP the better.

The documents below will help you contact your MP and prepare your arguments before you meet them. Click on each document to open it.

Letter to PSPC affiliate members telling you more about the current situation

Template letter to send your MP asking for an appointment to meet them

MP briefing on our concerns with CPI – you can give this to your MP to keep

RPI/CPI Key messages document – why we think the Government’s decision to switch to CPI was wrong

Feedback form to send the PSPC after you have met with your MP

Please return your feedback form by email to pspc@nut.org.uk

If you don’t know who your MP is you can find out by visiting

The ongoing CPI/RPI campaign

The PSPC is continuing to campaign for the restoration of RPI.

We have been keeping up the pressure by leafleting the Liberal Democrat, Labour and Conservative Party conferences, making the argument that pre-election promises have been broken and asking delegates to support switching back to RPI.

We also intend to hold another mass Lobby of Parliament in the spring. Look out for details on the PSPC news page but in the meantime please support the campaign to reinstate RPI by signing and publicising the e-petition below. By 15 December 2011, the e-petition had attracted 102,000 signatures. A big thank you to all those who have signed up. Please continue to encourage people to sign. The petition will now be considered by the House of Commons Backbench Business Committee, who will decide whether or not it will be debated in the House of Commons in the New Year.

The very successful Lobby of Parliament on 1 March 2011 raised awareness amongst MPs of the effect of the change to CPI.

The Pensions Increase (Review) Order that will facilitate the change is now on the Parliamentary Order Paper – Order number 827. The order is passed through the ‘negative resolution order’ so will come into force automatically. However, MPs have the opportunity to attempt to organise a debate and vote by ‘praying’ against it by signing an Early Day Motion (EDM).

Two EDMs have been tabled for MPs to sign. The PSPC has sent a briefing to MPs to alert them to the EDMs but we would be very grateful if you too would now contact your MP and ask them to pray against the Order by signing both EDM 1625, which has been tabled by John McDonnell MP, and EDM 1629 which has been tabled by Ed Miliband MP, Leader of the Opposition.

Please see the full text of the EDMs:

EDM1625

EDM1629

State pension age

The Government is working on proposals for an automatic link between pensions and life expectancy. This could accelerate state pension age increases way beyond the current plan of 68 by 2046.

State pension simplification

The Government intends long-term to simplify state pensions into a single flat-rate of around £140 a week, above the current means-tested threshold. This will apply to future pensioners only. The PSPC regards this as unacceptable./

Integration of income tax and National Insurance

The Government is planning to consult on possible integration of income tax and National Insurance Contributions (NICs). The Government did make clear that it would not extend NICs to individuals above state pension age or to pensions, savings and dividends.

Age-related personal allowances

The personal allowance for people aged 65-74 in 2011-12 is £9,940 – £10,090 for over-75s. The income limit at which clawback of these allowances starts will rise to £24,000.

Indexation of tax allowance thresholds

The Budget announced that tax allowance thresholds would increase in line with the Consumer Prices Index from April 2012. Age-related personal allowance and other thresholds for older people will be indexed to the higher Retail Prices Index for this Parliament.

Hutton report

The Government has formally accepted the recommendations from Lord Hutton’s report on public service pensions and aims to set out proposals for public service pensions in the Autumn.

Around 150 public sector pensioners lobbied their MPs to protest against the Government’s planned switch from the Retail Prices Index to the Consumer Prices Index for pension indexation. The Lobby was organised by the PSPC, National Pensioners’ Convention (NPC), Civil Service Pensioners’ Alliance (CSPA) and Occupational Pensioners’ Alliance (OPA) and supported by Age UK.

Lobbyists attended a packed House of Commons rally before putting their case to MPs. The rally was addressed by union representatives, campaigners and MPs - including Shadow Pensions Minister Rachel Reeves. Rachel highlighted the broken Liberal Democrat promise to keep RPI indexation and said she will continue to oppose a permanent change to CPI. She will be marching at the TUC demonstration on March 26.

Several other MPs spoke at the rally, including Labour MP Teresa Pearce, who is tabling an Early Day Motion in opposition to the change, Hywel Williams MP for Plaid Cymru and Nigel Dodds MP for the Democratic Unionists. To date, 117 MPs have signed the Early Day Motion.

Other speakers included Neil Duncan-Jordan from the NPC, PSPC General Purposes Committee member, Major General John Moore-Bick of the Forces Pension Society, Kay Carberry from the TUC who spoke of how the poorest pensioners will be affected, and Roger Turner, General Secretary of the Occupational Pensioners Alliance. The PSPC’s Nick Kirby explained how the change will mean pensioners lose out every year after the switch and stated that the PSPC will continue to fight the change.

Thank you to all those who attended the Lobby and for helping to make it a great success. If you lobbied your MP please tell us about the response you had by completing the attached Report Back Form.

Report Back Form

The Chancellor, in his Comprehensive Spending Review statement, indicated support for Hutton’s interim report. The Chancellor affirmed that the state pension age will rise quicker than previously planned to 66 by April 2020. This increases the odds that Hutton will recommend a normal pension age beyond 65 for public service pensioners in his final report. The Chancellor also indicated an increase in employee contributions of around 3 per cent on average. He said that a form of defined benefit pension will continue, the PSPC interprets this as a steer towards the career average scheme. The Government will seek engagement with all stakeholders including trade unions.

The PSPC will continue to fight for fair pensions for all.

The Commission, chaired by Lord Hutton, has produced the first of two reports on public service pensions. The interim report, published on 7 October 2010, reports Hutton’s initial findings, with a final report to be published in time for the 2011 Budget.

Although the PSPC welcomes Hutton’s recognition that public service pensions are not ‘gold-plated’, and that he wishes to avoid a ‘race to the bottom’, we are concerned that the measures contained in his report will lead to this in practice. Hutton does not concentrate on the major problem in UK pension policy – the poor provision in the private sector.

Hutton seems to accept the Government's proposal to change the pension linkage from RPI to CPI, which will substantially cut the pensions of existing and future pensioners. In its submission (see our ‘campaigning for you’ page), the PSPC asked Hutton to comment on the merits and propriety of this change. Hutton has indicated that he will look at the nature of accrued rights in his second report, but he does appear to accept the move to CPI.

Hutton has not made any specific recommendations for future pension accrual, but it’s clear he thinks public sector workers should pay higher contributions. It’s also clear that Hutton thinks a pension age of 60 is not appropriate, stating that public sector workers should work beyond 60 – staying in work to 65, or even older as State pension age rises. He also supports the ending of “final salary” schemes where pension is based on pay at retirement, arguing instead for career average schemes which have the potential to cut pensions for all employees, not just “high flyers”.

An "independent" Public Service Pensions Commission has been set up by the coalition government to examine the long term affordability of public service pensions, however, the government has already announced changes to state and public service pensions in their emergency budget, before the Commission has even started gathering evidence.

The Government’s first budget included the following:

• Restoring the “earnings link” for the State basic pension, increasing it by the higher of earnings, price inflation or 2.5 per cent from April 2011, but switching the inflation measure from RPI to CPI from 2012 onwards.
• Switching inflation indexation of State second pension and public service pensions from RPI to CPI from April 2011.
• Reviewing the implementation date for increases in State pension age.
• Increasing the qualifying age for benefits such as Winter Fuel Payments, free bus travel, eye tests and prescriptions in line with women’s State pension age.

While the PSPC welcomes the restoration of the earnings link, we reject the unexpected move to CPI inflation indexation for State and public service pensions. The PSPC sees this as an immediate breach of the Government’s promise to protect accrued pension rights. The CPI methodology means it will over the long term be consistently lower than RPI inflation, meaning that public service pensioners will lose significantly. If RPI exceeds CPI by 1% a year, a public service pensioner retiring with a £5,000 pension will lose over £22,000 over the course of a 25-year retirement. Those with second State pensions such as SERPS will be similarly affected.

The review of the increase in State pension age could involve this moving to 66 for men in 2016 with that for women following after 2020. Again the PSPC opposes this change which will hit the legitimate retirement plans of people in their late 50s or early 60s.

The PSPC will be campaigning with affiliates and others to protect public service pensions and promote decent pensions for all.

The Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition government’s initial plans for state and public sector pensions include the following:

• A commitment to establishing an independent commission to review the long term affordability of public sector pensions, while protecting accrued rights.
• The restoration of the earnings link for the basic state pension from April 2011 with a “triple guarantee” that pensions are raised by the higher of earnings, prices or 2.5%, as proposed by the Liberal Democrats.
• An agreement to phase out the default retirement age and review the date at which the state pension age starts to rise to 66 (not sooner than 2016 for men and 2020 for women) as well as an end to the rules requiring compulsory annuitisation at 75.

The PSPC has great reservations about an “independent” public sector pensions commission and does not support the increase in state pension age but welcomes the long overdue restoration of the earnings link. The PSPC will continue to work to represent public service pensioners’ interests to the new government.

The PSPC took part in the National Pensioners Convention/TUC march and rally, “Defend the welfare state and protect public services”, on 10 April 2010. The event was called to make it clear to any incoming government that welfare and public services must not be subject to further cuts and privatisation. Pictures from the day are in our photo gallery.

The pension spokespersons from the three main political parties attended PSPC’s General Election conference in March 2010 to discuss their proposals for public sector and state pensions with PSPC representatives. The PSPC launched its manifesto for public sector pensioners at the same event.