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Anger over Leeds City councillors’ pension payment deal
Leeds City Council spends over £170,000 a year in contributions towards councillors’ pensions, new figures reveal.
Since 2003, councillors across the country have had the right to join the local government pension scheme and 56 councillors in Leeds are members.
They pay between six and seven-and-a-half per cent of their council allowances into the scheme and the council weighs in with a 14.2 per cent contribution, the same rate it pays towards employees’ pensions. In 2010-11 the council made payments totalling £170,062. The contribution rate – set by the actuary of the fund – will rise to 14.3 per cent for 2012-13. In contrast many private sector employers pay a lower contribution rate - for Leeds-based Surgical Innovations and a scheme operated by the owners of Yorkshire Bank the figure is five per cent.
The Taxpayers Alliance, a spending watchdog and pressure group, wants changes to the local government scheme and is also calling for action to “tackle the growing trend of councillors joining.”
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Figures released by the alliance show that in 2007-08 3,527 councillors were members and this had risen to 4,548 by 2010-11. An average of 11 councillors per authority were paying in to the scheme.
Robert Oxley, TaxPayers’ Alliance campaign manager, said: “The increase in the number councillors enrolling themselves on the local government pension scheme represents a rise in the number of professional politicians. Councillors receive allowances not a salary, the increase in those claiming a pension moves away from the traditional idea that councillors are citizens doing their civic duty.”
Benefits for councillors include a tax-free lump sum, a pension based on career average pay – not final salary – and the ability to increase a pension by paying additional voluntary contributions.
A councillor with eight years in the scheme could expect an annual pension of £1,411 based on an annual career average pay of just over £14,000.
A council spokeswoman said: “Councillors are entitled to be members of the pension scheme. Their role working for a large city council like Leeds is significant. It seems right they should be provided access to a pension.”
* There are currently 26 councillors enrolled on Wakefield Council’s pension scheme. In 2010/11 Wakefield Council spent £56,847 in contributions towards councillors’ expenses.
In the same period, the council paid £37.1m in employer contributions towards the pension scheme as a whole.
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Comments
There are 5 comments to this article
Page 1 of 1
octopusuk
Wednesday, February 1, 2012 at 01:57 PMI've looked into the TPA and apparently they were doing a dodgy charity thing. Where donations are to a charity, the charity can reclaim income tax paid on the duration. But they must not use the money for political purposes. The Charity Commission are investigating the TPA for gaining this unwarranted advantage at the tax payer's expense! Classic.
NH
Wednesday, February 1, 2012 at 01:20 PMIt still beggars belief that you can join a council and still receive access to a career average final salary scheme...why not protect current members and do what the rest of the real world are doing and close these 14%+ contributed schemes. new employees are coming in knowing whats on offer, and saving the councils millions....The old arguement about needing this incentive because the pay is lower than the private sector is woefully out of date....A two tier system, yep, welcome to reality...Councillors aren't daft, if the offers there they'll milk it...
tothepoint5
Wednesday, February 1, 2012 at 12:26 PMTaxPayers Allowance? Funded by the same donors behind the tories but every media organisation in the country pretends their some form of independent grass roots movement speaking up for the 99%, as if.
Mark Paul
Wednesday, February 1, 2012 at 09:14 AMIts why they do the job, its a good steady income for what is in effect a 4 hours a week part time job, then they draw straws for group leader positions to bump up pension pots. If people realised what a good easy number it was you would not be able to see the polling card for independent candidates.
octopusuk
Wednesday, February 1, 2012 at 09:10 AMNon story, slow news day? More interestingly, who exactly are these taxpayer's alliance people and where does their funding come from?
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