Teachers are set to lose £74,000 from their pension incomes because of the government plan to base pension calculations on the Consumer Price Index (CPI), according to the National Association of Schoolmasters and Union of Women Teachers (NASUWT).
Pension figures have traditionally been calculated using the Retail Price Index, which currently stands at 4.8 per cent. The union said that a teacher with a yearly pension of £10,000 could lose a massive £74,000 over a 25 year period if pensions switch to the CPI measure, which currently stands at 3.1 per cent.
Chris Keates, NASUWT general secretary, said: “This change represents nothing more than naked raiding of public service workers’ pensions to make them pay the price for the greed and recklessness of the financial sector. Teachers have made their financial plans for retirement in good faith on the basis of the long established and historic link with RPI. To change the rules, not only for serving teachers but also for those who have retired, is reprehensible”.
He added: “It leaves the promises to protect accrued rights made publicly by senior figures of the coalition Government, including the Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister and Chancellor, in tatters. The average public service worker’s pension is £5,000. A teacher’s pension is just under £10,000. Hardly generous or gold plated”.
The union has published a calculator that teachers can use to see how their pension pots will be affected by the changes.
