Why did David Cameron use the services of Lord Hutton?
The long-awaited review of the public sector pension situation has been revealed today with former Labour Cabinet minister Lord Hutton leading the way. There is speculation that David Cameron used Lord Hutton, and his many Labour contacts, so that the release of today's report would be smoothed in some way with regards the expected backlash from opposition parties.
Despite the fact that the unions have already confirmed that industrial action will follow if any changes are announced to public sector pension schemes everybody involved in this particular saga knows fine well we cannot continue as we are. UK taxpayers will fund public sector pensions to the tune of £4 billion this year with a rise to over £10 billion by 2015. So despite the fact that local council taxes continue to rise in England and Wales, with taxes frozen in Scotland, the percentage taken from these receipts towards public sector pensions is set to grow significantly.
UK taxpayers now need to ask themselves whether they are actually receiving value for money for their taxes which are effectively being used to fund "unfundable" pension fund arrangements. It will be interesting to see how the financial press covers the proposed pension fund changes over the next few days.
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