The Scottish Government has made it clear that it doesn’t like Westminster’s plans for public sector pensions. As recently as last Thursday, health secretary Nicola Sturgeon said that it was “galling” that the UK government was “cutting taxes for the wealthiest in the country while raiding public pensions”.
True, she was speaking to GPs (at the Scottish Conference of Local Medical Committees), who will be among the most affected by the proposals. But it wasn’t a question of tailoring her comments for the audience – she, those who work for her and, indeed, the First Minister himself, have been consistent in criticising the coalition’s plans.
Fine words, however, butter no parsnips. Or, to put it another way, the extra money is coming out of NHS workers’ pay from next month despite Ms Sturgeons’ assertion last week that she shares doctors’ anger.
The Scottish Government has said it has no choice but to implement the proposed changes to the NHS pension scheme, which will see staff pay more, for longer, to get out less at the other end. The UK Treasury has said that whether the change is implemented in Scotland or not, the corresponding sum will be withheld from the Scottish block grant – in other words, if the Scottish Government doesn’t take the extra cash from healthcare workers, it will have to find it from elsewhere.
It’s definitely a tough one, especially in the prevailing UK climate, where decent pension provision appears, for many in the private sector at least, to be a thing of the past. You can understand a government thinking that its electorate won’t much care about the pensions of public sector staff – particularly the relatively highly paid, like doctors, and some health service managers – when voters are worried about their own jobs and income, and have quite possibly given up the idea of a comfortable retirement in any case.
I genuinely don’t think that’s the way that Nicola Sturgeon is looking at it. I think she probably does have sympathy for those in the NHS scheme in particular (which was changed in 2008 to be sustainable for the long term, and which is in surplus). And I think she probably does feel her hands are tied given the constraints of the current financial situation.
I’m less convinced, however, that things would be much different if, as she told the doctors last week, she had more "room for manoeuvre" (ie fiscal autonomy). Because actually, the Scottish Government does have the power to go its own way on pensions – although it would have to find the money from elsewhere. In this instance, it chooses not to: the Scottish Government’s choice, made in Scotland.
Today the health secretary was due to be meeting the Scottish Terms and Conditions Committee (STAC), a tri-partite group including government officials, representatives of NHS employers, and staff side. The aim was to “set the scene and provide the context, tone and parameters” of Scottish specific pension scheme negotiations, with the idea of reforming the NHS scheme from April 2015.
Ms Sturgeon told the doctors last week that she was “willing and keen to talk to see if we can find a better way than they have found in the UK”. In due course we’ll see what they come up with. But whatever happens, the Scottish Government has already laid the groundwork to allow it, legally, to take the extra contributions from healthcare workers from next month. Do we really think any “better way” is going to change that?
↧