Government’s response to the pensions employee contribution increase consultation

The Government has announced changes to the contribution rates that some civil servants will pay to their Civil Service pension from April 2012. Lower earners will be protected from any increase.

The Government is discussing with the unions longer term reforms to public service pension and proposals for further employee contribution increases in 2013-14 and 2014-15, and last month set out significant changes to its proposals for public service pension reform.

Minister for the Cabinet Office, Francis Maude said:

“The Government is committed to ensuring that civil servants have access to pensions that are amongst the best available. We announced at the 2010 Spending Review that as well as reforming civil service pensions for the long term, the Government would increase member contributions to pension schemes from April 2012.

“We have listened carefully to the concerns raised, but feel the proposal we set out in July is still the fairest approach for civil servants and does most to protect the lowest paid. Those earning less than £15,000 a year – that’s 3.6%1 of the Civil Service workforce – will not have to pay any extra at all. Another 39.5% of workersearning up to £21,000 will have their increase limited to 0.6 per cent.”

1 Civil Service Statistics 2010

Please use the links to documents below, or the links to further web pages on the right hand side, to find out more information.

Previous information about the consultation